Lubera and Lubera Edibles are making 2026 the year of blackcurrants, more precisely the year of our Cassissima® new varieties. For this purpose, the Cassissima® varieties from Lubera® will be specially promoted and highlighted in the consumer market and also BtoB (Taspo, Gabot) in 2026. What are the main reasons for this step, for the promotion of such Cinderella fruits? And is there even a market for them? How important are blackcurrants in the berry plant market and what are the trends? These are the questions we try to answer in this article.
The good old arguments in favour of blackcurrants: healthy, healthy, healthy...
Let's take a quick trip back to the 60s to 80s. If you've lived too short a life for that, there's a good chance that you haven't even been made aware of the potential of blackcurrants to this day. The blackcurrant is a Cinderella among the soft fruits of the garden: little known, overlooked, used less and less, and with a reputation that is at least partly questionable.
The cassis of the recent past (cassis is the Swiss and French name for blackcurrants) are grown somewhere on the shady side of the house because, as with sour cherries, you can still hope for a yield. And because they are sour anyway, they can also become a little more sour. This also prevents visitors or passers-by from spotting the mildew-ridden or mostly leafless bushes in the summer and autumn. The fruits are small, approx. 4-7 mm and incredibly sour. Although the adjective ‘sour’ only incompletely describes the mix of an aggressive blackcurrant flavour, acidity and bitter substances... In any case, I still have to grimace involuntarily when I think of the blackcurrants on the north side of my parents' house. But of course, the blackcurrants of the past were also very healthy, at least that's what my mother always told me when we protested against the black health pills being smuggled into yoghurt desserts. Actually, according to the impressions of my youth, blackcurrants were primarily a medicine, and such a medicine – like fennel, spinach and Brussels sprouts – must by definition taste bad, even horrible.
Is there a way out of this health cul-de-sac (healthy, bad-tasting like medicine), in which goji berries, for example, also find themselves?
Cassissima® breeding at Lubera
At Lubera, we have been breeding blackcurrants intensively for about 25 years. The fact that they have taken up and continue to take up so much of our space despite the relatively insignificant role of the fruit species is ultimately due to their former deplorable state. Underdeveloped fruits are best developed further if suitable genetic material can be found. Progress with already highly domesticated and specialised orchards is more difficult.
Thanks to the use of Russian, Swedish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian varieties and a bit of luck, progress was quickly made with blackcurrants and this is now being continuously expanded. The Cassissima® fruits of the present day (‘Black Bells’, ‘Black Marble’, ‘Little Black Giant’, ‘Noiroma’) are now presenting themselves as excellent tasting sweet fruits, ultimately as an alternative to blueberries – only much easier to grow (i.e. without a bog bed).
The new arguments in favour of Cassissima® berries
It is worth listing the most important arguments in favour of the new Cassissima® sweet fruits one by one.
- Fruit size
The fruit size of the modern Cassissima® varieties is between 15 and 20 mm in diameter, which is comparable to large blueberries. The overall impression is characterised by the fleshy texture, which, together with the sugar and aroma, is perceived on a berry-by-berry basis. Cassissima® fruit is no longer harvested and eaten on the bunch but pushed into the mouth berry by berry.
- Sugar
Cassissima® currants are quite simply sweet – and sweeter still. Their Brix values are 16-20° Brix. With so much sugar, the acidity is also masked and relativised. The sour but oh-so-healthy blackcurrants have definitely become sweet.
- Cassis flavour
The cassis flavour of the past was bitter and sharp, after three berries you had a sore throat. The cassis flavour of the Cassissima® varieties is subtle, delicate, sometimes almost unrecognisable, simply like an aromatic ‘watermark’ that makes the difference between a character fruit and any other blueberry.
- Plant health
Cassissima® bushes are mildew resistant. That is a fact.
- Yield
Gigantic yields are normal. It is worthwhile to stake the Cassissima® bushes and support the branches during the ripening period or hold them upright with a ring or string.
- Simple cultivation
In contrast to the past, I would not recommend growing Cassissima® in full shade again. But there's not really much else to do other than plant and harvest. Here are the three most important tips for cultivation:- Plant deeply to stimulate the formation of new basal shoots
- Fertilise rather heavily; lots of shoot growth leads to better fruit quality; the best and largest berries hang on two- to three-year-old wood
- Prune heavily; cut out 25% to 30% of the shoots every year, always those that are already the oldest and thickest first
- Yes, these berries are still healthy!!!
The anthocyanins and the high vitamin content (vitamin C) can still justifiably be used in favour of the black berries. But these arguments come last; they are no longer the killer argument of 30 years ago, which was supposed to help you overcome acidity, bitterness and your own reluctance.
Conclusion: the Cinderella fruit becomes a snack fruit that can be easily grown in any garden. Of course, the blackcurrants are still a long way from catching up with the blueberries. But Cassissima® blackcurrants are at least on the verge of catching up with red currants, their red and more successful cousins.
The market for blackcurrants (Lubera.com figures)
Of course, representative customer surveys are not possible for a niche product like blackcurrants. But we can draw on the sales data from Lubera AG (Lubera.com). Since blackcurrant varieties are offered here continuously throughout the year and are not specially promoted, this gives us a valid indication of the market and any market changes. There is another advantage: here we offer almost exclusively our own Cassissima® varieties and also explain their advantages. The sales figures are therefore also the result of the offer.
Figure: Sales figures 2024 – currants and jostaberries
The number of blackcurrant plants sold has grown steadily in recent years, as has their relative share compared to red currants. We now sell almost as many Cassissima® bushes as red currants per season for all varieties combined. Our marketing tends to favour the red currants, and in many bundles and mixed assortments, red and black are still offered in a ratio of 2:1.
What can be done to expand the market?
- Tell the wonderful story of the Cinderella fruit, which now shines in all its sweetness, size and beauty...
- Mention the cultivation advantages: easier to grow than red currants (no growth stop on the longest day) and blueberries (acidic soil)
- Inform about the plant production: easier to produce, as they grow much stronger. Plants from a tray of 60 can also produce pots of up to 5 litres (with pruning twice)
- Compare with blueberries (using the successful fruit as an example)
- Include the same number of Cassissima® as red currants in mixed assortments
- Make sample plants with large Cassissima® plants available to resellers: big sells small
