British Columbia looks to be getting ready to harvest blueberries in Abbotsford around a week before the start of this year. “Last year, we began the harvest on the harvest on July 10th, or around. The winter was cold and we experienced extremely cold temperatures. The expectation was to begin later than the 10th of July,” says Parm Bains the president and CEO at Westberry Farms. “However this warm summer has allowed us to keep pace and stay ahead of the previous year.” The farmers will start harvesting Duke blueberries of the variety.
Parm Bains as well Nav Bains from Westberry Farms.
Blueberry production for the region was originally thought to be 150 million pounds. however, the province actually was able to harvest 175 million pounds. “It’s an early time to determine the total amount of crop, but we’re observing poor-to average-quality fruit on the Duke varieties due to the scorching conditions during pollination” Bains says. Bains. The harvest will continue until mid-September.
In the area of varietals, there’s some advancements. “Duke is a variety intended for fresh-markets with mechanical harvesting. The B.C. Blueberry Council, which has an breeding program, but it requires a minimum of 10 years before obtaining an economically viable product–is trying to find varieties that are suited to mechanical harvesting in the market for fresh fruit,” says Bains.
This has to do with the condition of the local labour market to think about. “It’s great to choose your own fruits and vegetables in the market for fresh produce but there are labor shortages which is why there’s a growing amount of harvesting done by machines,” Bains says.
Notes of Varietal
As an example, farmers are planting more more Calypso different varieties of berries throughout B.C. This occurs at midpoint of Bluecrop during August. In the meantime, Elliott blueberries are a type that retail stores want to buy more and less. “Aurora is another late-season cultivar that’s doing quite great, but we haven’t seen too many plants of it. We’re trying to find an ideal later harvest time variety,” Bains says. Bains.
“We’re trying to find an ideal late harvest variety” Bains adds. Bains.
In terms of demand, it is yet to be determined. “With COVID, people were looking to improve their health and the demand for berries shot up. In the years since the sales have decreased. The majority of consumers are now going to eating out and having more food options to select from. Additionally, inflationary factors have started to kick in which means that people are spending more bananas and apples as opposed to berries.” Bains says. Bains.
It is important to keep an attention to pricing. Since the market for processing is full of product price, pricing has slowed down in the process side. “Peru has also begun to get more involved both on the frozen and fresh market. B.C. is only beginning and B.C. is just beginning and East Coast already has Peruvian fruit on the market” states Bains. “So considering the soft frozen market everybody’s focused on the market for fresh products. It’s likely be flooded, and prices are already falling even when we’re only just beginning to get started. It’s likely that we’ll see lower prices on frozen and fresh frozen items unless we can find the overall crop lower than the average.”
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Parm Bains
Westberry Farms
Tel: +1 (604) 850 0377
parm@westberryfarms.com
https://westberryfarms.com/