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Michigan expects an average blueberry harvest
Blueberry harvest is underway in the Midwest’s largest producing state.
“We’ve gone from being the big gorilla that produced half of the blueberries here in the United States about 20 years ago to producing about a quarter of the blueberries.”
Fruit extension educator Mark Longstroth with Michigan State University tells Brownfield blueberry plantings have been increasing in other regions and marketing windows are getting tighter.
“We’ve really had our marketing window squeezed and our prices squeezed by competition both internationally, from Mexico and Peru, but also internally from Washington and Oregon, and British Columbia also.”
He expects Michigan growers to harvest about 85 million pounds, similar to last year, ranking fourth in the nation behind Washington, Oregon, and Georgia.
Longstroth says a freeze on May 8th did cut production some but damage was sporadic, and growers are reporting a pretty good year overall.
