Wild blueberry growers in P.E.I., worried about low prices, look to tap into new markets

P.E.I.'s wild blueberry growersare still feeling the blues over the low prices for their harvest in 2023, and are now turning to new markets in hopes of providingmore stability in the industry.

Benny Nabuurs has a 400-acrewild blueberry farm inCardigan, 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, andthey'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 paid35 cents perpound byOxford 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 setthe 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 tocontribute," 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

Theassociation 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 thatactually buy blueberries and process them."

Nabuurs said he would like to see the P.E.I. government partnerwith theprivate industry to establish a new processing plant on the Island.

With prices fluctuating, wild blueberry growers in P.E.I. look to new markets

2 months ago

Duration 3:17

The price for wild blueberries offered by buyers have gone from record highs to record lows in recent years, and that has P.E.I. growers looking internationally for new markets. CBC's Nancy Russell spoke to Cardigan producer Benny Nabuurs and JoAnn Pineau, executive director of the P.E.I. Wild Blueberry Growers Association, to find out what's next.

JoAnn Pineau, the executive director of the growers association,was part ofTeam Canada on trade mission to South Korea in late April. She's now trying to build onconnections 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," hesaid. "We're already seeing quite a bit of blueberry land coming up for sale thatfive 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'realready seeing it in Nova Scotia."

CBC News reached out to Oxford Frozen Foods and Wyman's Blueberriesbut did not hear back.