Washington Blueberry Harvest Pt 1
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Washington blueberry growers are keeping pretty busy these days picking their fruit for the 2019 harvest. Washington Blueberry Commission president Alan Schreiber says he's on record stating that things are well underway ...
SCHREIBER ... "I gave a report to the North American Blueberry Council on what's going on in Washington and my first sentence is, "every growing region in Washington is in full-swing of harvest. We are right at the peak of blueberry harvest."
But, Schreiber says the Washington blueberry industry varies widely on several different fronts ...
SCHREIBER ... "Washington has a very diverse blueberry growing environment. We've got east Washington, Western Washington. We've got conventional, and organic. We've got fresh, and processed, we've got juice, we've got dried, we've got frozen blueberries."
Schreiber says there were some weather worries early on, but since then things have worked out just fine ...
SCHREIBER ... "The growing conditions this year have been surprisingly conducive for large size and good quality."
So, the overall blueberry picture for this year? ...
SCHREIBER ... "One thing I can say about our diverse blueberry industry this year is yields are heavy, berry size is large, and the quality is excellent."
Tune in tomorrow for more on this year's blueberry crop and how the timing of the weather helped production in more ways than one.
