USHBC-Korea.

North American Blueberry Harvest! Good news is that the US and Canada harvested the largest blueberry crop in history! This amounts to more than 302 million lbs of highbush blueberries! (around 137,000 metric tons!) The other good news is that demand is super high including in Korea! This high demand has led to tight supplies of blueberries. First of all, we want to thank you for your support and interest in blueberries! We want to openly share our crop and supply situation and work together to help get through these current times of limited supplies. Please contact Tom Payne immediately if you have any concerns or problems with sourcing blueberries and we will do our very best to make things work: bberry@blueberry.org Download a new publication by USHBC that puts the situation into perspective (market situation) and also visit our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section where we have established a special area to address supply questions. Thank you and please hang in there with us!!!

Increased Demand for Fresh Blueberries: News about the health benefits of blueberries has spurred increased demand in North America and Korea as well. We have seen rapid increase in demand in the sales of fresh blueberries which typically account for around 40% of the total crop sales. This has risen to more than 60 percent. (Fresh Blueberries are not allowed for import into Korea.) This means that fewer blueberries have entered the "processed" market channel which has led to tight supplies for frozen blueberries -- as many Korean buyers have learned. The supply pinch has been most acute for Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) blueberries which are being marketed in the booming poly-bag sector for consumers. USHBC wants to work with Korean blueberry buyers to help ensue they can obtain product. We have set up a special buying tips section of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. (view)

Good news on the horizon: Blueberry production is on the rise! We are seeing substantial new plantings in the Pacific Northwest which should come into production in the near future.

Blueberry production is on the rise throughout North America. Note from this chart that you will see substantial amounts of blueberries in all regions of the country!