Blueberry Harvest Pt 1

Blueberry Harvest Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. The Washington State Blueberry harvest is under way in all the growing regions and the projections aren't as good as predicted earlier in the season, but are still looking pretty good ...

ALAN SCHREIBER ... "The yield on established blueberries are down some this year. However, with increased production from newly planted fields we project that Washington will have a few million pounds more of blueberries this year than last year. The quality seems to be very good. Conditions have been dry so there's been no disease pressure and demand seems to be fairly strong for Washington blueberries."

But, Washington Blueberry Commission director Alan Schreiber says don't ask about our state's average yield because it's a moving target ...

ALAN SCHREIBER ... "Washington doesn't have averages for blueberries because it has expanded so much every year, more than the year before. I started keeping tabs on blueberry production in 2006 and every year has produced more blueberries than the year before. Our projection, this year, and I want to say it's only a projection, is that we will have 130-million pounds. Last year we had 120-million."

Schreiber says even though the projections changed, Washington could still produce more blueberries than ever before.

He says last year, 40% of our blueberries came from Eastern Washington, 40% from Whatcom County, 10% from Skagit County, and the other 10% from around the state.

Listen tomorrow for more on the growing blueberry industry and the curious supply and demand numbers.

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