SARL Anjou Myrtilles

Company Profile

The Company was started in 1996 with a partnership between Jacques Guepratte and Stephen Taylor who had previously worked together for many years. When one of the main growers of Blueberries in France decided to retire, it was an opportunity too good to miss, and so Jacques and Stephen purchased the Blueberry Farm The name was retained and the farm has gone from strength to strength.

Today the farm is managed by Jacque's son Rodolphe, with technical assistance from Donatien.

The Company proved to be very successful, and had an opportunity in 2005 to purchase an additional adjacent area of Blueberries, which nearly doubled the production. Together the two farms are run as one, with other small pieces of ground locally added to the area farmed.

The site is located in one of the best sites in the world for soft fruit growing, with enough chill in the winter for the plants, but no extremes of cold that can occur for example in Poland. The hours of sunshine in the summer, together with the long growing season and low risk of frosts make the site ideal in terms of climate. When this is combined with a natural acidic and fertile soil, left from the alluvial deposits of The Loire river over previous millennia, and more recently organic matter built up by 2-300 years of forest, the site is acidic enough for Blueberries yet also perfect for other soft fruits with the addition of only a small amount of lime as there is a large buffer capacity.

The farm consistently produces around 400 tonnes of Blueberries p.a. and has also diversified into Raspberries, Blackberries and Black and Redcurrants and currently produces about 100 tonnes Raspberries, 40-50 tonnes on Blackberries and smaller amounts of currants, but all destined for the UK and the rest of Europe. All fruit is sold through the Berryworld PO, and the PO uses the site as a base in France to begin to explore the possibilities of expanding sales into Europe. Most fruit still comes to the UK, all of which is packed in the Winterwood packhouse, but the PO does not want to be totally reliant on the UK market so is well placed to export fruit from other members in the future if this market develops.

The Blueberries are produced from under 15ha of productive area, which we believe makes it the most productive commercial Blueberry unit per ha in the world, - unless you tell us different!