Transition from North America to South America Creates Tightening Blueberry Market
NORTH AMERICA - With blueberry growers wrapping up their North American production and getting ready for the transition into South America, now is an ideal time for retailers to lock in supplies during the transition. With local supplies in both the Pacific Northwest and Michigan winding down, a tightening market and higher pricing have been a notable side-effect of the transition.
Mario Flores, Director of Blueberry Product Management at Naturipe Farms tells me that production in Michigan is in its final two weeks of production, making it an excellent time for retailers to take advantage of late supplies to bridge the gap between Northern and Southern Hemisphere production.
“Before the South American season, Michigan Blueberries could make for a very good situation for retailers to bridge the gap between North American season and South American,” Mario says. “Demand has still been great despite the wind-down, and we’ve been seeing the high line of FOB pricing for blueberries even without strong promotions.”
The USDA reported blueberry prices on flats 12 6-oz cups with lids out of Michigan at $28.00 - $32.00, as of September 29, 2015.
Lori Hickey, Marketing Manager for HBF International, has also seen higher pricing during this transitional period, she tells me.
“We have for the most part finished up our Northwest season at this time and will be transiting to our Argentina program over the next few weeks,” Lori says. “As supply domestically has dropped off over the past few weeks the price has been going up. We will project seeing that continuing to be the case for the next few weeks as we wait on the weather challenges that have hit the Argentina growers.”
Lori explained to me that Argentinean blueberry production has been delayed due to rain and cooler weather, but should be running strong in about three weeks which will help prices stabilize once that fruit is ready for harvest and supply picks up.
Driscoll’s is also anticipating a stabilization of market prices in the next few weeks, John Johnston, Driscoll’s, Director of Blueberry Business tells me.
“We expect market prices to decline in October as supplies from both South America and Central Mexico increase. For now, demand continues to exceed supply and blueberry pricing is increasing due to rapidly declining supplies in the Pacific Northwest, as the season ended two weeks earlier than normal this year.”
John tells me that the initial quality of Driscoll’s fruit out of central Mexico, Peru, and Chile has been excellent, and the company anticipates strong supplies from late September through March from these regions.
For more on the upcoming blueberry season and what to expect out of South America, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow.
