BLUEBERRY PRODUCTION AND RESEARCH TRENDS IN NORTH AMERICA

In the last 10 years, the area planted to all blueberries in North American increased 30% to 96,869 ha. During this period, lowbush blueberry area increased 33% and highbush 22%. In the USA, the area planted to “highbush” (northern and southern highbush and rabbiteye) blueberries increased from 19,758 to 22,393 ha from 1992 to 2003, a 13% increase. In 2003, the Midwest region of the USA accounted for 36% of the area of highbush blueberries planted. The South, New England, and Western regions accounted for 28%, 17%, and 14% of the planted area in 2003, respectively. Specific states in the USA that had considerable growth from 1992 to 2003 were California, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington. In Canada, the area planted to highbush blueberries increased 102% to 4397 ha. Commercial blueberry plantings in Mexico were estimated at 28 ha in 2003. In the USA, total lowbush area increased 6% since 1992 with Maine accounting for 97% of the area planted. In Canada, lowbush area increased 57% since 1992 with 37% and 34% of the area planted in Quebec and Nova Scotia, respectively. The blueberry industry is still projected to grow considerably in the next 5 to 10 years. Highbush blueberries in the USA are expected to increase 16% and 35% in the next 5 or 10 years, respectively. In Canada, planted area of highbush blueberries is expected to increase by 22% in 5 years and 25% in 10 years. If projections are correct, planted area in Mexico will increase by almost 30 fold in 10 years. The managed area of lowbush blueberries is expected to increase by 10% to 20% in the next 5 to 10 years. Data on typical yields, types of cultivars grown, markets, proportion of machine harvest, major production problems, changes in production practices and research areas are presented. INTRODUCTION Blueberry cultivation in North America is thought to have started when Native Americans burned wild stands of native lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait. and V. myrtilloides Michx.) in Eastern North America to tend them and to increase production. European settlers began managing wild stands in the 19 century (Eck and Childers, 1966). Cultivation of rabbiteye blueberries (V. ashei Reade) began near the end of the 19 century (Mowry and Camp, 1928). Elizabeth White and F.V. Coville are credited with starting cultivation of the northern highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum L.) in the early 1900’s (Eck and Childers, 1966). The first southern blueberries (complex hybrids based largely on V. corymbosum and V. darrowi), ‘Sharpblue’ and ‘Flordablue’, developed by R. Sharpe and W. Sherman at the University of Florida, were released in 1975. Development of plantings were, however, slow with only 4 to 6 ha of pick-yourown southern highbush in Florida in 1978. The first fresh southern highbush blueberries were shipped out of Florida in 1982 (P. Lyrene, pers. commun.). In the late 1980’s ‘Georgiagem’ from the USDA, Georgia, ‘Gulfcoast’ and ‘Cooper’ from the USDA, Mississippi, and ‘O’Neal’ from North Carolina were released. Many of the plantings in Florida are now made up of relatively new releases from Lyrene’s program at the 173 Proc. VIII IS on Vaccinium Culture Eds.: L. Lopes da Fonseca et al. Acta Hort. 715, ISHS 2006 University of Florida. The initial increase in area planted to cultivated blueberries in North America was slow. In 1930, ten years after the first cultivars were introduced from Coville’s program; there were less than 80 ha in production. However, by 1965 there were 8100 ha of cultivated blueberries planted. In 1992, James Moore (1994) conducted a survey of blueberry production in North America. He reported that the area planted to blueberries increased 19% from 1982 to 1992; cultivated types increased 47% and lowbush 11%. He projected that the total area planted to blueberries in North America would increase 14% by 2000 (Moore, 1994). Blueberries have become a major crop worldwide. This paper reports on the results of a survey conducted in 2003 on production in North America. The objectives of this survey were to determine how many hectares of blueberries were planted, what types of blueberries were being grown (northern or southern highbush, rabbiteye, or lowbush and what cultivars), average yield, harvest methods, amount of area planted for organic production, markets for fruit, types of production system changes, significant pest and other problems, breeding and research programs foci, and expected trends for the next five and ten years. This paper does not include information on harvest of any native Vaccinium species (i.e. in Montana or Alaska), other than the lowbush blueberry, V. angustifolium. Surveys were sent out to Extension and research colleagues and key industry leaders in states in the USA and provinces in Canada that were known to have at least 20 ha of blueberries planted. Key industry leaders provided information on production in Mexico. Greater detail on who provided help with this survey is provided in the acknowledgements section. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Production Regions Although blueberries are likely cultivated to some extent (i.e. home gardens or small test evaluation trials) in most regions of North America, commercial cultivation was not present or was considered very minor in 2003 in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Prince Edward Island, Canada and in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Alaska, and Hawaii, USA. In the USA, the area planted to highbush, both northern and southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberries increased from 19,758 to 22,393 ha from 1992 to 2003, a 13% increase (Table 1). This is considerably higher than the 16,580 ha reported by the Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) (USDA, 2004). The difference is likely because the NASS only reports harvested area, whereas this survey includes all planted area not yet in production. In addition, NASS does not include many states that have significant blueberry plantings i.e. Mississippi and Texas). In 2003, the Midwest region of the USA accounted for 36% of the area of highbush blueberries planted. The South, New England, and Western regions accounted for 28%, 17%, and 14% of the planted area in 2003, respectively (Table 1). The relative importance of these production areas in the US has changed relatively little since 1992, except the proportion of area in the West increased from 6% to 14%; this increase was due to relatively little change or a decrease in area planted in the New England and Midwest regions (Table 1). Specific states in the USA that had considerable growth in hectares of highbush blueberries planted from 1992 to 2003 were California, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington (Table 1). A couple of respondents felt that the hectares provided in the 1992 survey (Moore, 1994) overestimated actual area planted. Specifically, in New York the area planted was thought to have increased by 10% since 1992, rather than the 17% loss calculated based on the 1992 survey (Table 1). Secondly, in Florida the area planted was thought to have increased by 66% rather than the 38% loss based on the 1992 survey (Moore, 1994; Table 1). For the other states the

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