GRAND JUNCTION, Mich. – Blueberries are health-beneficial and in high demand these days. Nearly 690 million pounds of cultivated and wild blueberries were produced in the United States last year. But this scrumptious fruit that is no larger than a marble might be the center of a border war of sorts – blueberry imports.

“Due to booming domestic demand, we should be enjoying a market where there is room for both domestic and foreign growers to profit,” said Jerome Crosby, chairman of the board of directors of the American Blueberry Growers Alliance (ABGA). “However, foreign government policies targeting the U.S. market and large corporate import interests have combined to bring massive volumes of blueberries into our market, increasingly during periods that in the past provided growers with the bulk of their revenues and often all of their profits for the year.”

The ABGA provides a unified voice for blueberry growers across the United States, including Michigan, California, Florida and Georgia.

Michigan was the nation’s leading producer of cultivated blueberries. The state produced and utilized 110 million pounds valued at $130.4 million. The three following top producers were Washington, Oregon and Georgia. Farmers in these states and others have made extensive marketing efforts over many years to educate purchasers and consumers about blueberries, which have increased demand. But imports may be putting a dent into blueberry farmers’ profit margins.

“Foreign producers are taking the benefit of those efforts, in some instances by creating industries out of nothing and exploiting cheap labor and poor environmental regulation overseas,” said Rex Shultz, of Heritage Blueberries in Bangor, Mich., and president of the Michigan Blueberry Advisory Committee. Schultz raises many varieties of blueberries on his Van Buren County farm.

“Producers in foreign countries are totally dependent on our market, and they have every incentive to keep shipping more and more product here,” he said. “This is not a sustainable situation for the American blueberry farmer.”

In 2017, the United States exported 58.9 million pounds of fresh blueberries (cultivated and wild) valued at $107.7 million. Canada was the top buyer of fresh blueberries by farm, followed by South Korea. Exports of U.S. frozen blueberries were almost 53.1 million pounds valued at $53.2 million.

U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the value of blueberry imports into the United States more than doubled from 2014-2019. Five countries accounted for more than 98 percent of total U.S. imports of blueberries over that time period: Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Peru and Chile. Import values from those countries rose from $530 million in 2014 to $1.2 billion in 2019.

Blueberry imports from Mexico, in particular, have had a tremendous impact on the seasonal market for U.S. blueberries. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service reported a 68 percent increase in imported Mexican fruit from 2019 to 2020, which represents a rise of more than 15 million pounds of fresh blueberries during a 14-week period. And often, massive amounts of fresh blueberries arrive from Mexico and South American without a buyer.

“Peruvian produce can arrive in massive shipments, with hundreds of thousands and even millions of pounds of perishable fresh blueberries on one ocean-going vessel that has been in transit at least two weeks before being unloaded at U.S ports,” said Shelly Hartmann, owner of True Blue Farms in Grand Junction, Mich.

True Blue Farms is a fourth-generation farm, dating back to the mid-1900s. In 1993, the Hartmanns started their first farm with just 25 acres of blueberries. Today, True Blue Farms is one of the largest growers in North America, producing and marketing millions of pounds of premium quality blueberries. Today, Michigan boasts roughly 21,000 acres of blueberries on about 600 farms.

“When these blueberries are released all at once onto the fresh market, they cause prices to crater. This pushes domestic production of blueberries grown for the fresh market into the frozen market.”

Members of the ABGA provided information on Jan. 12 to the U.S. International Trade Commission during a hearing on the impact of rising imports during the U.S. growing and harvest season, stating that U.S. import data shows that American blueberry growers have been devastated by an influx in blueberry imports by 75 percent the past five years.

“The massive increase in Mexican imports during our harvesting season has crippled the Florida blueberry industry and threatens its very existence,” said Brittany Lee, executive director of the Florida Blueberry Growers Association and owner of Florida Blue Farms. “Over the period 2009 to 2019, we saw imports from Mexico increase by 2,111 percent. We have experienced a significant decline in price per pound for fresh blueberries in Florida, and a huge loss of market share.”

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Canadian blueberries no threat to U.S. producers

 

“Blueberry producers in the ‘lower 48’ may have issue with blueberry imports from Mexico and South America, but no finger-pointing should be directed at Canada.” Those are the sentiments of Nadia Bourely, the Canadian Embassy’s minister-counselor for economic and trade policy.

“We’re not the problem,” Bourely said during an online hearing before the U.S. International Trade Commission. “We find it very difficult to see how blueberry imports, particularly imports from Canada, could have caused any injury to the U.S. blueberry industry. Between 2015 and 2019, U.S. imports from Canada grew by only 15 percent, while total imports grew nearly 56 percent.

“If anything, U.S. growers have benefited from accessing the Canadian market. U.S. and Canadian producers are highly integrated and this integration has worked to the overwhelming benefit of the U.S. industry. The only real increase in trade flows between our countries has been northbound.”

Blueberry imports from Mexico appear to be the primary concern, particularly for southern producers. But Canadian producers have been caught in the squeeze – and singled out by farmers in northern states like Oregon and Michigan.

Rex Schultz, Michigan blueberry farmer and president of the Michigan Blueberry Advisory Committee, question’s Bourely’s theory. Schultz says shipments from Canada tend to enter the country without specific buyers already lined up.

“Our costs are not much different from our Canadian counterparts, but the Canadian exporters are able to leverage exchange rates to undersell the market and kill the early and mid-season prices,” Schultz said. “Canadian farmers prioritize cash flow and are willing to send product to this market at what seems like any price, fresh or frozen. As a result, Canadian fruit keeps prices in the U.S. very low.”

The bottom line? Roughly 98 percent of Canadian blueberry exports go to the United States, but Canada is the world’s single largest importer of American-grown blueberries by a wide margin, and the two industries are deeply integrated.