AP interviews Yarborough about Maine blueberry harvest
The Associated Press spoke with David Yarborough, a blueberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and professor in the School of Food and Agriculture, for a report about this year’s blueberry harvest in Maine. Yarborough said the volume of this year’s wild blueberry crop was slightly behind recent trends. He said the harvest is likely less than 90 million pounds, and possibly as low as 85 million. Recent years have yielded about 90 million pounds per year, and the 2014 total was 104 million, according to the report. Yarborough said the cold spring wasn’t optimal for bees to pollinate, and the berries suffered from die-off during the winter months and a dry summer, the report states. “No disaster, no big crop, but the consensus I can say here is average to below average,” he said. “Sometimes too many great years in a row aren’t too great, either — it pushes price down and you have oversupply.” Sun Journal, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, WLBZ (Channel 2), WMTW (Channel 8 in Portland) and Tri-City Herald carried the AP report.