New Food Economy speaks with Yarborough about wild blueberry surplus
David Yarborough, a wild blueberry specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, was interviewed by The New Food Economy for an article about Maine’s blueberry surplus. This year, with a near-record harvest expected across the state’s 18,000 acres of barrens, the United States government is planning to buy $10 million worth of blueberries to help support farmers who are facing low prices and increasing competition from both Canadian lowbush blueberries and domestic cultivated blueberries, according to the article. “We are victims of our own success,” Yarborough said of the downswing in the market. “Prices were good, and people were making a lot of money.” Now, some growers are finding their berries will cost more to harvest than the processors will pay for them, the article states. Yarborough also was quoted in a Mainebiz article on the market glut.