blueberries

The Washington Blueberry Commission board will hold a long-range/strategic planning meeting January 27th and 28th in Bothell.  The WBC says this is one of the most important meetings in the Commission’s 50 year history.  In 2019, 155 million pounds of fruit was produced, an 8.6-fold increase...

Mechanical harvesters.   Typically when we discuss that technology, focus turns to the tree fruit industry, or vine and plant fruit crops, such as grapes and berries, bound for processing.   However, researchers at Washington State University and a host of other Land Grant institutions continue to push for harvesters that can pull fruit destined for fresh markets.  WSU’s L...

Following Wednesday’s announced that the U.S. and Japan had signed a trade deal, Representative Greg Walden said the announced was welcomed news for Oregon Farmers and Ranchers.   “This trade deal is welcome news for Oregon’s farmers and ranchers,” Walden said. “During my townhalls in She...

NASS says the amount of Northwest apples used for either fresh or processed products dropped 11% last year.  In Washington, apple utilized production hit 6.37 billion pounds last year, a 12% decline from the previous year.  The Value of utilized production came in at $2.19 billio...

Washington State University, and Oregon State University will hold a pair of blueberry pruning workshops in early February.  The free events will take place: Friday February 8th at the Lynden Public Library, starting at 11:30 a.m. Lynden Public Library Meeting Room 216 4th St, Lynden, WA 98264 The Lynden Event starts at 11:30 a.m.  ...

A 10-year study looking into how to more economically grow blueberries organically shows there are some initial steps the producers can take to better compete with conventional growers.   Oregon State University Research Bernadine Strik said there were three questions the industry wanted answers to.  ...

The Washington Blueberry industry continues to grow.  The Washington blueberry crop is expected to top 130 million pounds this year, a year over year increase of roughly 10 million pounds.  Total value of the crop is estimated to exceed $150 million in overall production, with about 70% going for processed and 30% for fresh.   ...

Blueberry production is already peaking in Florida which is expected to produce one of their largest crops ever, but a mid-March freeze in Georgia, the largest producer for the fresh market could hurt consumers.   USDA Economist Agnes Perez said because Georgia was hit, the marketplace will feel the impact.  ...

The USDA’s Economic Research Service has released their forecast for the 2017 blueberry crop and noted that some of the biggest impacts are coming from significant increases in crop production in Chile and Mexico.   Domestically prices dropped but some adverse growing conditions in the Southeastern U.S. could h...

The next quarterly meeting of the Washington Blueberry Commission will take place on Monday, March 13th in Lynden.   The meeting will recap trips to Vietnam and the Philippines and what was learned, recent research work that is being done and previewing an upcoming state pesticide tour.  ...