USDA takes Maine up on 30 million pounds of blueberries
PHOTO CREDIT / LORI VALIGRA
The oversupply of wild Maine blueberries has lead to the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchasing 30 million pounds of frozen blueberries.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken the state of Maine up on its January offer to sell 30 million pounds of wild Maine blueberries. The state’s offer comes after two back-to-back seasons of near record-breaking crop yields and a five-year decline on the prices of frozen wild blueberries.
Maine’s congressional delegation told the Associated Press on Thursday that the USDA will be paying up to $13 million for the wild berries, in part to aid the agency in its domestic food-assistance programs and its search for healthy food products.
"It makes a lot of sense for the federal government to make this purchase to help ease the surplus of frozen blueberries and at the same time supply food assistance programs with a very healthy, high-quality food,” Rep. Chellie Pingree told the AP.
The price of frozen blueberries plummeted from 90 cents per pound in 2011 to 60 cents per pound in 2014 and continues to drop, according to the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine. The executive director of the commission, Nancy McBrady, said the low value of the Canadian dollar has put Canadian blueberry growers, which are centered in the Maritime provinces, at a competitive advantage when selling in the United States and internationally.
"And the competition from cultivated blueberries is omnipresent," McBrady said. "The prices of wild blueberries have dropped, so our farmers are earning less for our blueberries."
Maine produces 25% of all wild blueberries in North America, with 44,000 acres of the official state fruit contributing roughly $250 million to the state’s economy.
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