Fresh Vs Frozen Blueberries
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. Blueberry production in Washington state continues to climb, with the past two years at or above 200 million pounds.
And Alan Schreiber, Executive Director of the Washington Blueberry Commission, says when you break that down to fresh and processed, conventional and organic, we could still use more …
SCHREIBER … “Along the way, there was a feeling that the fresh price was going to be high and there’s a low price for conventional fresh, and so more went on to the processed market than we had originally anticipated. So, right now we’re thinking 75% processed, 25% fresh, which means 50 million went on to the fresh market, but overwhelmingly of that fresh portion is organic.”
Schreiber says yeah, we grow a lot of blueberries here … but …
SCHREIBER … “I think the story shouldn’t be, wow, look how many blueberries are produced here, north of the border and south of us. That’s not really the story. Look at the demand for blueberries. The story is, the marketplace can’t get enough processed, dried and organic blueberries. That’s the story.”
And demand, Schreiber says will be strong again …
SCHREIBER … “I think that more than 80% of the frozen blueberries are contracted already. Actually, I heard that 80% number in October. That’s why I put more than 80%.”
Again, that’s Alan Schreiber, Executive Director of the Washington Blueberry Commission.
