Canada Day marked the first ever shipment of fresh British Columbia-grown blueberries to South Korea, but timing has thrown off the season somewhat both abroad and in North America. 

After a long wait, the British Columbia fresh blueberry industry has marked key milestones this year with inaugural exports to South Korea and the first full season with Chinese market access.

Unfortunately the timing of the 2016 harvest has not been in the industry's favor, according to BC Blueberry Council executive director Debbie Etsell.

"For the China market we've had some shipments go out, but with the domestic production in China still in process there’s been a lot of calls for Canadian product for after July 15 when Chinese production slows down," Etsell tells www.freshfruitportal.com, finding a gap in her schedule after back-to-back visits from South Korean and Japanese inspectors.

She says historically the province usually starts picking in late June with the bulk of the volume coming in July and August. In contrast, this year the first pick took place on June 8 and growers already had large lots of fruit ready for export by the end of that month.

"The packers have got a lot of fields of Duke that they’ve put into the [China] program because it’s some of our most beautiful – at the beginning of the season the quality of the fruit has been really good; it’s big, it’s sweet, Duke travels very well and shelf life is very good," Etsell says.

"Our supply of Duke is going to just start to dwindle here. That means they’ve gone to a lot of work in those fields and not been able to send it to China and that’s unfortunate.

"Being early, it’s really messed up some of the marketing plans of the retailers in both Korea and China."

But the volume is still there in other varieties, and temperatures haven't been as hot lately which may slow the crop down and hopefully normalize timing to an extent.

"We were going at a great pace - we had had a really hot early Spring, but now it’s been at least three weeks of intermittent weather. We have warm temperatures, not hot, we have showers, every once and a while we'll have rain, so that's helped the expedited pattern here which has helped definitely.

"It's definitely slowed all the varieties down a bit which can help out with the China market, the Korea market and the North America market as well.

"I’ve seen product ready to go to China, and it’s beautiful. There was a consistency of size in the clamshells, and I really hope that impresses them."

Etsell also clarifies most growers are trying to put their best foot forward by sending via airfreight, even though there will likely be some exports by sea.

"Of course if it was by ship it’s anywhere from 22-26 days on the sea from Vancouver, and that would make a difference. That’s something that definitely BC is going to have to work on, but right now being the first year there are going to be a lot of flights going out.

"This is a long distance. We’ve sent to Japan before and this of course is a bit farther, so they just want to make sure they can ensure quality.

"Also for promotion [In China] we’re doing WeChat and Weibo in China for the first time – that was our baby step into the market so to say, to get people used to Canadian product," she says, adding that in South Korea the sector was represented at the Seoul Food Show this year, while there has also been work on in-market efforts as well."

Troubles closer to home

While the prospective markets of Asia embody the biggest growth opportunities for the British Columbia blueberry industry, perhaps of greater consequence this season will be the odd timing of season clashes with a variety of U.S. states.

"This year it’s unusual weather patterns again. We’ve almost never been side by side with New Jersey, and this year we are," Etsell says.

"So you have New Jersey which is a big state, Washington, Oregon and BC all producing close to the same time. When you talk about the North American market, that’s difficult.

"And Michigan was late this year. We usually have our Duke around the time of the later varieties, but this year their schedule has been behind ours, so it’s a very interesting year as far as what weather can do to a global market and even a domestic North American market."

"Excellent quality" season

As a grower focused on blueberry processing, council chair Jason Smith is less touched by the vicissitudes of Asia's fresh fruit market but he still has to prepare for the impacts of the odd weather this year in Canada.

"We were tracking earlier than last year and then we got some cooler, wetter weather and that pushed things back," Smith told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"I went in and did my first pick on the exact same day I did it last year. This year we have similar timing to last year, and that’s still about three weeks earlier than normal.

"Quality has been excellent for the most part with lots of nice big Dukes for sure, and we've had a lot of moisture too."

He says now the industry is almost asking, 'when is summer going to show up'?

In the meantime, growers like Smith need to be cautious about picking soon after the rain in order to avoid problems.

"We try not to unless we absolutely have to because it affects how the berries roll off the catch plates – when they’re wet they tend to stick and they don’t roll off properly," he says.

"When there’s a lot of moisture what can happen is the green and red berries tend to fall off the plants as easy as the blue ones, and when you have a bunch of wet weather you want to wait two or three days to harvest.

"That’s something we’ve noticed over years of experience and it’s the same thing with irrigating.

"Overall for plant growth and fruit quality it’s actually been a really good season. The weather during pollination was pretty good for the most part, and it looks like it’s [the weather] going to dry up."

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