Domestic blueberry production out of Texas is enjoying a boost this season. “I’m harvesting blueberries big time right now,” says Ivan Vaseleniuck of Texas-based Echo Springs Blueberry Farm. “There are much more berries than last year—we have probably 20-25 per cent more berries than last year.” As Vaseleniuck points out, in 2016, a freeze in March killed many of the flowers set to grow into the berries. “But this year we had a hot spell in March and it brought the fruit on much earlier,” he says. “I normally produce until about the 20th of July but this year I venture to say that I’ll be finished about the 10th of July. I started harvesting last week, so earlier this year.”
Along with early production, Vaseleniuck adds that the berries are bigger too this year because of all the rain.
Domestic berries start
Berries are coming on now in the domestic market. “The competition lasts throughout the season as the zones come on,” says Vaseleniuck. “Colombia starts and then it’s Costa Rica, then Guatemala and then Mexico. Then as the climate changes up here it goes from Mexico to Texas and Texas is the first state with berries in the U.S.” From there, berry production, he adds, moves north as the summer comes up through Florida—who is already producing—North Carolina and eventually Michigan and Canada.
For more information:
Ivan Vaseleniuck
Echo Springs Blueberry Farm
Tel: +1-903-852-5277
[email protected]
http://echospringsblueberryfarm.com/
