Financial effects of reducing the use of peat in blueberry production systems

Over the past decades, the demand for blueberries in Germany has drastically increased but the expansion of cultivation areas has been constrained by limited availability of suitable natural growing conditions. For this reason, various peat and substrate-based production systems evolved in the past. However, increasing pressure to reduce peat use in agricultural production poses a major challenge. In this context, a financial analysis of the impact of reducing peat use in the blueberry production systems can inform blueberry farmers about the profitability of different options. For this purpose, a typical production system approach was adopted, involving interviews with farms and focus groups with experts to define the typical status quo blueberry production systems and to identify the potential impacts of peat reduction under both peat-reduced and peat-free scenarios. A dynamic investment analysis was carried out to analyze the profitability effects of peat reduction and peat elimination as compared to the typical status quo production systems. The findings reveal two typical production systems for blueberry cultivation, namely cultivation in 'artificial soil' and in 'container'. The results show that a complete replacement of peat is not profitable in both systems. Although it is possible to reduce the peat used in 'artificial soil' and 'container' production systems to 50% and 25% respectively, this would entail considerable financial losses.