At their Fresno County farm, growers Scott and Mandy Critchley show off their blueberry crop during harvest season. Statewide, production is estimated at a record 74.5 million pounds, according to the California Blueberry Commission. Harvest in the San Joaquin Valley is expected to run through June. Photo/Cecilia Parsons
May 22, 2024 - By Ching Lee - Thanks to favorable growing conditions, California blueberry farmers appear on track to harvest what could be their largest crop ever.
They are not alone. Greater production is also coming out of other blueberry-growing regions, flooding markets with the fruit and lowering prices for growers.
“The price is not where we would like to see it,” Fresno County grower Jon Marthedal said. “I think there’s a fair amount of fruit on the market, and there’s going to be more. Mexico is still sending quite a bit of fruit our direction.”
California’s 2024 blueberry crop is estimated at 74.5 million pounds, with 53 million going to the fresh market and 21 million pounds going to processors, according to the California Blueberry Commission. That’s up from last year’s 71 million pounds but down from an initial estimate of 80 million pounds, which was adjusted due to some rain damage during bud break that affected fruit set, said Todd Sanders, the commission’s executive director.
State plantings are estimated at 8,900 acres, up from 8,750 acres last year, according to the commission.
Don Bowden, senior vice president of blueberries and nuts for Stockton-based AC Foods, said mild temperatures in December and January helped produce plenty of blossoms on the plants, but some cold and rainy days in early spring slowed fruit sizing and ripening.
This year’s crop not only represents a record for the state, but the fruit is of “amazing” quality, Sanders said. That should help California growers distinguish their product from the increasing volumes of fruit being shipped from Peru, Mexico and Chile, he added. The three countries account for 88% of the fresh blueberry imports that come into the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mexico—the world’s fifth-largest blueberry producer—continues to extend its blueberry season well into California’s, “and their fruit is significantly cheaper,” Sanders said. That has diminished much of the early-season advantage for California growers, whose harvest increasingly bumps into Mexico’s peak season. Rising prices for blueberries have encouraged Mexican growers to expand their production more than 80% between 2017 and 2022, USDA reported.
The U.S. remains the top export market for Mexican blueberries, with a nearly 97% share, according to USDA. Mexico’s 2024 blueberry production rose 8% compared to last year, the department reported.
“The United States is the largest consumer of blueberries in the world, so everybody’s putting their blueberries into this market, which then saturates the market and depletes the price,” Sanders said.
It doesn’t help that other blueberry-producing states—including Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Oregon and Washington—also have bigger crops this year.
Growers in the San Joaquin Valley, who produce the bulk of the state’s commercial blueberries, are expected to hit their peak production next week, with harvest running through June. Other state growing regions such as the Central Coast have been harvesting berries since last fall, while growers with production in hoop houses also pick fruit before the San Joaquin Valley crop ramps up.
Prices will dictate whether growers will switch to harvesting more of their fruit mechanically in the coming weeks, as the market may not justify the high cost of hand labor, said Jayson Scarborough, a fruit marketer in Fresno County. That could lower the overall pack-out by 10% to 20%, he said, as the machines tend to beat up some of the fruit and harvest unripe ones, all of which must be sorted out during packing.
“There’s always anxiety about (market conditions), especially with a big crop,” Scarborough said. “The key…is trying to figure out when the California peak is and getting out in front of the retailers and getting the promotions in place to move that large crop.”
At this point in the season, growers are more concerned about a potential heat wave that could soften the berries, making them unsuitable for the fresh market, Scarborough said. Last year, fresh blueberries were valued at $4.83 a pound compared to 48 cents a pound for berries going to the freezer or processing, according to USDA.
With San Joaquin Valley’s blueberry season typically lasting six to eight weeks, Mandy Critchley—who grows blueberries with her husband Scott in Tulare, Fresno and Kings counties—emphasized the importance of daily communications with buyers about the status of their crop, harvest timing and peak volumes. Having this dialogue, she said, also allows her to understand buyers’ needs.
Because blueberries are grown year-round worldwide and California’s season sometimes overlaps with other growing regions, Critchley said her farm uses the California-grown license plate logo on packaging so that retailers can promote the local berries when they’re in season. Many of her customers “truly do value” local agriculture, she said, and they will shift to buying from California when the local product is available.
“It does come down to price, but at the end of the day, cheap isn’t always the best fruit if it’s coming out of Mexico when you have California,” Critchley said.
Though most of the state crop is sold domestically, Sanders said the commission has been developing and expanding export markets. With a bigger crop this year, he said California will “lean on” overseas markets even more. Canada remains the state’s top export destination for blueberries. Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia also buy U.S. and California blueberries, while the Philippines is a newer market that opened to American blueberries during the past few years.
With so many countries growing blueberries, marketer Scarborough said the export arena has become more challenging and “not as strong for California as it used to be.” He noted California has lost a lot of its market share in countries such as Spain and Morocco, both of which have the same harvest season as the Golden State, sometimes harvesting sooner, with “very cheap fruit.” Australia is a target market for California, but it remains closed, he added.
To be competitive against imported fruit, Sanders said more California blueberry growers have become certified organic. Organic blueberries now make up 45% of the state crop. AC Foods, for example, markets its regenerative organic certified blueberries—grown in California and Oregon—under the brand Betterful.
Grower Marthedal said he tried to grow organic blueberries but found that his operation was not well suited for the practice. Because of the added cost, he said, “we didn’t feel like we were geared up appropriately to continue with organic production.”
With Mexico’s increased production and berries entering the market ahead of California, he said growers here have begun to move away from what was once a more lucrative early market. Instead of planting varieties that allow California to start earlier, he said he thinks growers will be driven more by varieties that lend themselves to better mechanical harvesting.
Plant breeders will help facilitate the move, he said, as blueberry harvesters continue to improve and packing equipment becomes better at sorting.
“If you develop a variety that you can go in and machine pick from day one,” Marthedal said, “that’s going to be much more important than anything as far as timing goes.”
(Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)
The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of nearly 32,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of more than 5.5 million Farm Bureau members.
Source: Reprinted with permission CFBF
