In this installment of the ‘Agronometrics In Charts’ series, we take a look at the impact of tariffs on one of America's largest blueberry farms. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

At one of the largest blueberry farms in the U.S., it’s easy to lose sight of the end of the rows. In Franklin County, Washington, Ray Biln oversees 1,500 acres of dense blueberry bushes that stretch to the horizon. His family’s farm produces tons of berries each season — enough to help Washington claim the top spot in U.S. blueberry production.

But beneath the rows of thriving bushes, uncertainty is taking root.

Most of Biln’s blueberries don’t go straight to American grocery stores, instead they are transported to British Columbia for processing and packaging before being reintroduced to the U.S. market. According to Biln, the majority of the fruit produced in Washington is processed and packaged in plastic clamshells in the northern region of British Columbia. 

The blueberry supply chain is significantly influenced by the cross-border relationship. Annually, approximately 40 million pounds of Washington blueberries are transported to Canada for cool storage and processing. During peak season, there’s little room for delay. Any border friction could lead to a disastrous backlog. Although blueberries currently remain tariff-exempt under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the Trump administration’s broader tariff policies have raised industry-wide concerns.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.

(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.

(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.

(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

All pricing for domestic US produce represents the spot market at Shipping Point (i.e. packing house/climate controlled warehouse, etc.). For imported fruit, the pricing data represents the spot market at Port of Entry. You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 21 commodities we currently track.