Maine blueberry growers struggling with plummeting prices
Photo / Lori Valigra
Maine's wild blueberry industry faces competitive challenges from cultivated blueberries.
Maine’s wild blueberry growers are facing market challenges stemming from declining prices and increased competition from cultivated blueberries.
Maine Public reported that those pressures have spurred several meetings organized by the Maine Cooperative Extension in which wild blueberry growers discussed how to remain competitive and stay in business.
William Rudelitch, a small grower from Harrington, told Maine Public that prices paid for his wild harvest have fallen to 25-to-29-cents per pound, half the cost of production and a fraction of more than $1 per pound paid 10 years ago, according to statistics compiled by the Maine Cooperative Extension.
David Yarborough, a wild blueberry specialist with the Maine Cooperative Extension, said the traditional distinction of cultivated blueberries being sold primarily as a fresh market fruit and wild blueberries being primarily a processed fruit no longer exists.
“If you look at British Columbia, they produced 160 million pounds of blueberries, and you know, you usually think of high bush as fresh market. They froze 110 million of the 160 million, so all those blueberries are now sitting and competing directly with wild blueberries,” he told Maine Public.
Last fall, the Associated Press reported that the 2016 harvest of wild blueberries in Maine was likely to hit its five-year average of about 93 million pounds.
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