The British Columbia Blueberry Council has reported that this year's blueberry crop is looking good after a relatively mild winter, and little weather damage. While it is too early to estimate the size of the harvest, signs point to picking starting in the middle of July.

"Our blueberry plants are beginning to bloom and bees should be heading out into the fields soon," said Debbie Etsell, executive director of the BC Blueberry Council. "Weather has been about 1 degree Celsius cooler than normal which has put us slightly behind, but we shouldn't be as late as last year." Last year's BC blueberry harvest started three weeks later than usual, around July 18, but produced a record number of berries, coming in at 40 million kilograms.

The British Columbia Blueberry Council represents over 800 blueberry growers, located in some of Canada's most rich and fertile farmland. Plantings of premium quality high bush blueberries top 8,100 hectares in British Columbia and produce upwards of 40 million kilograms of blueberries annually. With more than $1 billion in sales in the past five years, Canada is the third largest producer of sweet and juicy highbush blueberries in the world. Available fresh in BC from July through October, delicious BC blueberries are also frozen, dried, juiced, puréed and powdered, available for year round-distribution throughout Canada and around the world.