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organic marketing berries
Jason Smith, president of Fraser Berry Farms in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, says Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) outbreaks make organic production very hard in his part of the world. SWD is a pest that often appears when winters don’t get cold enough, but the former chair of the British Columbia Blueberry Council says profitability has been strained for processed berries, thus making organics more appealing.
In response, Smith plans to convert some of his farm with the early Duke variety to organic in the near future.
IMPORT BOOM
Growth rates are strong for organic berries grown in the United States, with most industry players seeing demand moving beyond coastal urban centers to the nation’s heartland.
But for this trend to be consolidated, the industry needs a 52-week supply. It’s a goal that is already difficult to achieve in conven- tional let alone organic, but the industry is getting there thanks to import programs.
Honigberg says Sun Belle’s organic domestic blueberry program should be up 50% this spring and summer, and the import blueberry program grew 60% last year.
She points to very large growth in Peru and Mexico, while growth has been steady from the regions that are allowed to export organic blueberries from Chile.
“It really is year-round supply because the Peruvian production is starting in August and the Mexican production continues through May and even into June, and of course we’re working with domestic production starting in March and April,” she says.
Honigberg’s views are echoed by Ryan Lockman of North Bay Produce, who says there has been more conversion to organic blueberries in Chile than anywhere else in the blueberry industry.
The South American country is the world’s leading exporter of the fruit, and Lockman’s observations appear to be corrob- orated by Andrés Armstrong, manager of the Chilean Blueberry Committee.
He says 14% of Chile’s blueberry exports were organic last season, but there are nuances that mean the proportion is likely higher.
“We know that there are blueberries produced organically, but they end up being traded as fresh conventional,” he says. “In all, we estimate that more than 20% of the surface area planted in Chile is certified or in the process of organic transition.”
He says Chile grew its total organic blue- berry exports by 35% last year, with shipments
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to the United States rising 24% and the less mature European market receiving 94% more. One hamstring for Chile in recent years has been the presence of the European Grape- vine Moth, also known as Lobesia Botrana, in some regions of the country. For Chile to be able to export blueberries at all from these areas, a fumigation protocol was adopted that
effectively negates organic shipments.
At the time of writing, hopes were high this protocol would change by the next
season, which starts in late 2019.
“Currently, the regions of O’Higgins,
Maule, Bio Bio and Ñuble require fumigation to enter the United States,” says Armstrong. “The rest of the country doesn’t have this restriction and can export products in organic
condition to this market, and that’s where the greatest growth is observed.”
However, he claims a systems approach has been reached by authorities to allow fruit without fumigation from Bio Bio and Ñuble, which account for around 30% of Chile’s production.
Chile would have played a big part in the results of a Nielsen study commissioned by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council last year, which found a 48% increase in volume sold for fresh organic blueberries at retail to reach 31 million pounds.
From a category perspective, Downs of Berry People says Mexico is “far and away becoming the predominant supplier of organic berries into the U.S. market.”