Page 24 - CFAN_Jun2014

FEATURE | agribiz

Finding a

Silver Lining

amidst the
BLUE

FACTORS

Blueberry Proits Down after Some of the

Crop Misses the Marketing Window

good news
F
three
by CHERYL ROGERS he
is that low chill
NEW
cultivars mature
FLORIDA’S BLUEBERRY PRODUCTION dropped this year ater that
early moving release
an unseasonably warm December, followed by a cool and cloudy are towards fall
springirst
spring that delayed the crop. Although growers lost proits during in the or , with the plants
the state’s lucrative spring marketing window, some beneited from available to
likely to be fall 2015
u-pick, organics, and marketers who stuck with the Florida crop.
growers in .

“It was a challenging season weather wise,” recent years, with sales climbing from $12.2 million Fruit must have the proper number of chill hours,
says Dudley Calfee, president of the 500-member in 2000-01 to $69.1 million in 2010-11, according as well as heat units. Because the crop is wedged

Florida Blueberry Growers Association (FBGA). to state and national government igures.
between the Chilean and Georgia crops, timing
“Most of the growers are down 20 to 50 percent.”
However, U.S. Department of Agriculture is important for pickers and marketers who may

“his season really knocked the wind out of a Daily Movement reports show 412 trucks carrying quickly turn to the higher volume Georgia crop.
lot of growers,” agrees Bill Braswell, the past FBGA 16.48 million pounds of blueberries were logged Sometimes it doesn’t pay to pick the Florida berries

president, suggesting some smaller growers “may through May 31. hat’s down from 465 trucks solely for commercial sale. Some growers, like

throw in the towel.”
and 18.6 million pounds transported last year. An Clermont’s Blueberry Hill Farm, turn to u-pick and
he good news is that three new low chill additional six truckloads, or 240,000 pounds, of we-pick.

cultivars that mature early are moving towards organic blueberries were transported; no shipments “We ended up making money at a time when
release in the fall or spring, with the irst plants of organic blueberries were logged last year.
we normally wouldn’t,” says Anna Adams DeLoach,

likely to be available to growers in fall 2015, “It’s a little too early to determine what the who handled u-pick at the farm along with her
reports Dr. Jim Olmstead, an assistant professor in cash receipts for this year’s season will be,” says husband Roy. he farm is run by Richard Adams,

Horticultural Sciences at University of Florida (UF) Daniel Taylor, a marketing specialist with Florida’s John Adams, and John Gray and also ofers organic,
in Gainesville.
Department of Agriculture and Consumer which was a “big draw.”

“hey are a really good addition to the very low Services’ Division of Marketing and Development. Although organics is a small segment of the

chill varieties that are available to Central Florida “According to the 2013 Florida Agriculture by market, there’s been a steady increase in demand,
and the areas farther south,” he elaborates. “I think the Numbers, last year’s cash receipts for Florida says Ken Patterson, owner/manager of Island

the consumers will like them.”
blueberries was $62,073,000.”
Grove Ag Products in Hawthorne and Arcadia.
Like all farmers, blueberry growers are Patterson grows 90 acres of organic blueberries and
BLUE FACTOR: TIMING
dependent upon favorable weather conditions.
260 acres of conventional blueberries. “More and
Florida’s blueberry industry has blossomed in

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