AP quotes Yarborough in report on plummeting blueberry prices
David Yarborough, a wild blueberry specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Associated Press for the article, “Fear of losing blueberry growers as prices drop, crop soars.” Wild blueberry prices to farmers have plunged from nearly a dollar a pound in 2011 to around 25 to 30 cents per pound last year, according to the article. The number of farmers and acreages is holding steady, but other measures show a decline in effort on farms, state officials said. For example, bees are imported to Maine to pollinate blueberry fields, and the number of beehives coming into the state declined by about 20 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to Yarborough. Canada and Maine, the country’s sole significant wild blueberry state, produced 400 million pounds of wild blueberries last year, Yarborough said, adding the norm is around 250 million pounds. Regardless of the size of this summer’s crop, prices are unlikely to surge back to higher levels quickly, Yarborough added. “This particular situation isn’t going to resolve itself in a year or two, it might take longer,” he said. The Washington Post, WLBZ (Channel 2), The Seattle Times, The Salt Lake Tribune and WRAL carried the AP report. The Portland Press Herald also published a version of the article.