Blackberries in the PNW Pt 2

Blackberries in the PNW Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. We talked yesterday about the commercial blackberry industry here in the Pacific Northwest and how so many of us unaware of the commercial side of the delicious berries often picked in the wild. Northwest Berry Foundation Executive Director Tom

Peerbolt says most of our commercial blackberries are grown in Oregon ...

PEERBOLT ... "The difficulty is we've got a commission, a blackberry commission down here that keeps track of all the tonnage and pricing and organization. In Washington, you've got a red raspberry commission, but you don't have a blackberry commission, same in B.C. So, there's some acreage, but we have trouble keeping track of exactly how much acreage there is compared to Oregon."

Peerbolt says the two states have their own specialties ...

PEERBOLT ... "And what I do, the way I usually look at it is, the west side of Oregon, the Willamette Valley is very heavy into trailing blackberries, processed blackberries, where Washington, northwest Washington is primarily red raspberries, processed red raspberries, they're somewhat equivalent to each other."

Peerbolt says other berries also have a commercial presence in the northwest ...

PEERBOLT ... "Along with it, we've a fairly good-sized industry of black raspberries, same thing. It's about the only area that has, I think it is the only area that has significant black raspberry acreage. And, boysenberries get thrown in there too."

U.S. blackberry production, dominated by Oregon, was 58.4 million pounds on 7,000 acres in 2017, up 14% from the year before.

6 million pounds were sold as fresh berries and 52 million pounds were sold as processed.

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