Wild blueberry growers in P.E.I., worried about low prices, look to tap into new markets
Growers association joins Canadian trade mission to South Korea
P.E.I.'s wild blueberry growers are still feeling the blues over the low prices for their harvest in 2023, and are now turning to new markets in hopes of providing more stability in the industry.
Benny Nabuurs has a 400-acre wild blueberry farm in Cardigan, in eastern P.E.I., and has been in the business for 35 years.
He said the volatility of prices has some producers thinking about getting out of the wild blueberry game.
"In the last four years, we've seen record high prices, and they've slowly slipped down to record low prices," Nabuurs said.
"To the point now where the prices that were offered last year were below what it cost to produce an acre of blueberries."
Last year, Nabuurs said growers were paid 35 cents per pound by Oxford Frozen Foods in Nova Scotia, and 40 cents from Morell, P.E.I.-based Jasper Wyman and Son. In 2022, they were paid 70 cents a pound.
To make matters worse, he said they only learned about the dramatic price drop in November, long after the harvest was over.
"That makes it pretty difficult to manage your business," Nabuurs said.
"If the price offered is below the cost of production, you might decide not to bother harvesting a field rather than spend a high dollar figure to harvest the field only to find out that that there wasn't enough berries, or revenue generated from the berries, to pay the cost of harvesting."
Marketing board rejected
The companies the growers sell to usually wait until after the berries are all harvested before they establish the field price, Nabuurs said.
Members of the P.E.I. Wild Blueberry Growers Association would like to see buyers set the price earlier.
The association had put forward a motion to create a marketing board, but it did not pass.
"The marketing board would have made [a] levy mandatory for all growers to contribute," Nabuurs said.
"The second thing that we wanted from a marketing board was to be able to sit down with the processors or the buyers, and at least establish what the field price is going to be before we started harvest, not after the harvest is complete."
Nabuurs said some growers were concerned the negotiations would be time-consuming and ultimately unsuccessful.
And there was an even bigger concern.
"There was a fair bit of fear among the growers that some of the buyers might boycott buying berries on P.E.I. if the marketing board went through," he said.
Growing their market
The association is now putting work into growing demand for their product, both on P.E.I. and internationally.
Nabuurs said he is considering a wild blueberry brand featuring Anne of Green Gables.
"Those would be targeted to the Japanese market for sure, but Anne of Green Gables is a worldwide, world-renowned brand, so we would like to export them to wherever we can," he said.
"The biggest challenge we have in growing our markets is processing capacity. Right now we're limited in the number of processors that actually buy blueberries and process them."
Nabuurs said he would like to see the P.E.I. government partner with the private industry to establish a new processing plant on the Island.
JoAnn Pineau, the executive director of the growers association, was part of Team Canada on trade mission to South Korea in late April. She's now trying to build on connections made with buyers there.
"Wild blueberries are still relatively new [in South Korea] and because of the lifespan of the product, we're just selling frozen there right now. That is kind of what the plan would still be," Pineau said.
"But there's a really great opportunity for dried products or liquid, more shelf-stable products."
As our crop increases, we're looking to provide some price stability to our growers.—JoAnn Pineau, P.E.I. Wild Blueberry Growers Association
Pineau said the association is also targeting other countries.
"As our crop increases, we're looking to provide some price stability to our growers where we can, and part of that is opening up these new markets," she said.
"This industry is a little volatile as far as pricing goes year to year, so it makes it hard for our producers to plan ahead."
Nabuurs said something needs to change or growers are going to leave the industry.
"If the prices don't go up this year, you're going to see an exodus from the blueberry business," he said. "We're already seeing quite a bit of blueberry land coming up for sale that five years ago was unheard of. You wouldn't be able to buy any land.
"You're going to see some blueberry land come out of production here in P.E.I. They're already seeing it in Nova Scotia."
CBC News reached out to Oxford Frozen Foods and Wyman's Blueberries but did not hear back.
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