BC's blueberry harvest is expected to set a record this year, but some farmers fear a glut will hurt the industry as growers continually add to the province's current inventory of 11,000 hectares devoted to production of high-bush blueberries.
Industry insiders say this year's crop could top 68 million kilograms, up 25% from a record 54.5 million kilograms last year.
“We had a big crop last year and had a hard time selling that,” said W&A Farms principal Bill Zylmans. “If anyone is wanting to get into it, nah. I'd say you've got rocks in your head.”
Gaskin Farms principal Jo-Ann Kwantes agreed with Zylmans, saying she has heard horror stories about blueberry farmers who are not able to find buyers for their crop.
“There's not enough freezer space for all the blueberries,” she said. “I have a processor to sell to but some farms have no home for their fruit.”
BC Blueberry Council president Debbie Etsell believes fruit processors have sufficient space for blueberries in their freezers as long as the berries are of high quality and have achieved certification from CanadaGAP, which is a private food safety organization.
“If you have a small farm and are not producing a quality product, it could be quite difficult to sell your blueberries [to processors],” she said.
Retailers also demand high-quality fruit, so it is unclear whether an increase in berry production will trickle down in the form of lower prices for consumers, she added.
Langley-based Driediger Farms this summer completed a $10 million investment in new freezers and processing equipment to handle blueberries from its 85 acres of the healthy fruit, principal Rhonda Driediger told Business in Vancouver.
Driediger also buys and processes blueberries from about 80 other growers.
“We started out as a small processor and packed a few hundred thousand pounds of blueberries,” Driediger said. “We now sell millions of pounds all over the world – direct to a polybagger in Ontario but also throughout North America, to Japan, China and Chile.”
B.C. farmers export fresh and processed blueberries to Hong Kong, but only processed B.C. blueberries can be exported to mainland China, despite about nine years of lobbying from the BC Blueberry Council and various politicians.
Etsell, who has been leading the push, joined federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and provincial Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick in China last month when China signed what she called the equivalent of a memorandum of understanding.
“Over the past few years, we've had verbal commitments,” she said. “To get something in writing is better than verbal. We also are confident that inspectors will come from China to complete a pest risk assessment this year.”
Access to China's fresh blueberry market would be huge for B.C. growers.
That's why Driediger is so bullish on the sector.
She thinks Zylmans is short-sighted for his belief that a B.C. blueberry glut will bite back at farmers now planting fields.
“People fear food in China,” she said. “Even though China is developing a blueberry industry, they will never be able to grow enough to feed their own people. If you're Chinese and have money, the last thing you want to do is buy Chinese product when you can buy an imported Canadian blueberry. You know [B.C. blueberries] are safe, that the water is tested and that they're grown on land without heavy metal contamination.”
