UNITED STATES - As growers are well aware, the state of the market can change on a dime. Last week, as blueberries were facing a gap in production as volume from Chile dipped, I checked in with several industry members to get a beat on the situation.

Tom Smith, California Giant Berry Farms’ Director of Sales, provided me with some insights.

“Pricing has been relatively high for this time of year. Chilean supplies have been delayed up until this point and most Chilean production regions are forecasting 20-30% less YOY from 2022,” he told me. “The Mexico fall crop has finished, while the spring crop is just beginning with light supplies weekly.”

Tom went on to note that market conditions have been steady, but he expects them to soften as more volume arrives to United States ports from Chile.

“We are projecting peak supply volume from Chile over the next three weeks,” he continued. “Retail promotions are underway to support the increased volume. Chilean blueberry supply is forecasted to be light on the late season varieties. This will impact the start of the domestic blueberry season which begins around March. We are projecting strong pricing during the shoulder period between imports ending and domestic beginning. Overall quality has been good so far.”

Brian Bocock, Vice President of Product Management for Naturipe Farms, also helped illuminate the state of the blueberry market for me.

"Compared to years prior, the blueberry market has remained strong through late 2023 and into 2024. At Naturipe, we’re seeing good to great quality berries, which has really helped with increasing consumer purchases and driving demand,” he noted. “In terms of volume, Chile is running a couple of weeks later than normal, but we will have peak arrivals now for the next few weeks. We’re expecting strong movement and firm prices during that time period.”

We’ll keep reporting on the latest across the fresh produce industry so stay tuned to us here at ANUK.