INDUSTRY OVERVIEW:NEW BRUNSWICK WILD BLUEBERRIES

In New Brunswick, wild blueberries have been harvested commercially from native stands for more than fifty years. Nearly 4.2 million kg (9.3 million pounds) are produced annually in the province. There are about 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres) in wild blueberries in NB, with approximately half of the area in production in any one given year (wild blueberries are cropped biennially). Three hundred or so farm families are involved in wild blueberry production. Over 95 % of these farms are located in the coastal counties, where the plant occurs naturally, and where the moderating effect of the ocean reduces the risk of frost. The production is split among three major growing regions: (a) the counties of Charlotte and Kings (35%); (b) the Acadian Peninsula and Kent County (50%); and (c) the Southeast counties (15%).

INDUSTRY PROFILE

The global wild blueberry industry is confined to northeastern North America, where the plant is part of the native vegetation. Approximately half of the production occurs in Canada ( in all of the Atlantic provinces, as well as the Lac St. Jean region of Québec). Approximately 57 million kg (125 million pounds) of wild blueberries are produced annually, with about half of this processed in Canada. Marketing of the Canadian crop is approximately 20% domestic, 20% stateside, and 60% overseas (primarily Europe and Asia).

New Brunswick produces approximately 16% of Canada’s total (or 8% of the industry’s total), and freezes approximately 4% of the industry total. With potatoes, this is one of the few NB agricultural commodities whose primary market focus is global. The farm gate value of the crop is generally in the vicinity of 6 to 7 million dollars, with value-added processing accounting for a doubling of this value. The crop has enjoyed a good track record as an economic diversifier in coastal regions reliant on fisheries, and has had good regional spin-offs in the input sector.

PRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS

Over 99% of the crop is being produced on land where the blueberry plant grows wild. Land is brought into production by clearing the wood from the forests in which the wild blueberry plant occupies the under story, or by discouraging the growth of trees in abandoned farm fields which have begun their reversion back to forest (referred to botanically as succession). Modern cultural techniques are then used to stop the fields from reverting back to forest in a type of "arrested succession".

Canada’s native peoples used wild blueberries fresh and dried. By the time Europeans colonized Atlantic Canada, the region’s natives were burning wild blueberry fields periodically to rejuvenate the stands. Modern wild blueberry management consists of a two year cycle. In the fall of the second (or crop) year, or in the spring of the first (or sprout) year, the fields are pruned. Traditionally, this pruning has been performed by burning the fields with straw or tractor-driven oil burners, though growers are increasingly using mowers to prune their fields.

Pruning is done in order to rejuvenate the stand, and it results in an outgrowth of new shoots from the rhizomes. The rhizome is the equivalent of an underground stem that forms a dense network in the soil. Pruning by fire also sanitizes the field by reducing the presence of diseases, insects and some weeds. Most growers use a selective herbicide at this time of year in order to reduce competition by weeds. Compared to pesticide use in the world’s other large-scale commercial fruit species, the use of pesticides in wild blueberry production is very low.

After pruning, the new sprouts emerge in the spring and grow all summer, but produce fruit only in the second year of the cycle. In the fall of the first year, the fields are a blaze of colour with a myriad of crimsons, purples and scarlets, reflecting the fact that wild blueberry fields consist of several hundred varieties (or clones) of wild blueberry plants. Once the sprouts have gone through the winter and begin to flower in late May of the second year, it is beneficial to introduce honeybee hives in order to pollinate the crop. A successful crop requires that pollen be transferred from one flower to another. When this occurs and flowering is over, the berries will grow for the whole summer and turn blue in early August.

The crop is generally harvested during the last three weeks of August. Approximately half of the New Brunswick crop is picked mechanically with tractor-mounted harvesters, and the remainder is picked by hand using rakes. The steel rake (invented in 1883) resembles a dustpan with teeth. After harvest, the two year cycle begins again.

MARKET CHANNELS

More than 95% of the wild blueberries grown in New Brunswick find their way to freezing plants

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

The Wild Blueberry Association of North America (WBANA) is a common promotional arm for the whole industry. The efforts of WBANA and its members have kept markets in sync with a doubling of production in the past decade or so. The efforts of the industry are directed at differentiating this fruit from the cultivated (highbush) blueberry, a fruit which has a level of production similar to that of wild blueberries, and which is its prinicipal competitor on world markets. Efforts are also aimed at distinguishing the wild blueberry from other fruits which might be considered substitutes. The berries benefit from a real and positive association with the term wild, which imparts a sense of nature and wilderness. Despite the fact that species of wild plants similar to wild blueberries could be exploited in northern Europe, tradition, the economies of scale and the technological sophistication which have been achieved in Canada and the US make that situation unlikely in the short and medium term.

The use of wild blueberries is enjoying rapid uptake in an increasingly wide use of products (cereals and beverage concentrates), over and above its traditional use in baked goods, yoghurts and the European glass jar trade. Vigilance in new product development, aggressive promotion and the further globalization of trade could spell a good future for use of the crop.

Huge technological advances have doubled wild blueberry production in the past decade. Further technological advances may have a similar impact in the next ten years. The processors, in conjunction with WBANA, have managed to keep demand in sync with the burgeoning production. This poses huge challenges for the growers and the rest of the industry in seeking to remain cost-competitive while seeking additional users and uses for the crop.

The challenge for New Brunswick growers will be substantial, since productivity per unit area in NB is less than half of the industry average. In some instances, low yields can be attributed to the opening of fields from forests, which then take many cycles to reach full production. The current trend towards land levelling in order to facilitate the use of mechanical harvesters and flail mowers is also contributing to the lowering of average yields. This is due to the fact that the crop cover is temporarily disturbed in order to flatten the fields. Recovery from these activities, as well as the adoption of new technology (pollination, fertilization, irrigation, windbreaks, native bee habitat management) may dramatically increase average yields over the next 5 to 10 years. This growth will need to be matched by activities aimed at minimizing costs through mechanization and/or input rationalization.