Blueberry industry considers assessment hike
The blueberry industry is debating increasing U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council assessments. Learn how higher fees could fortify marketing.
Fresh and processed fruit growers pay $18 per ton ($0.009 per pound). The council’s steering committee is proposing an assessment of 2.5 cents per-pound increase on fresh ($50/ton) and 1.5 cents per-pound ($30/ton) on processed fruit. The assessment hike is designed to generate $30 million for the council’s marketing budget by 2028, according to the USHBC.
The blueberry industry is deciding if it’s willing to unite, invest and respond, and determine an assessment level that growers can afford and support while ensuring it receives enough resources to make a meaningful impact, said USHBC chair Bryan Sakuma of Burlington, Washington’s Sakuma Brothers Farms and Processing.
“This is a grower-led organization, and this will be a grower-led decision,” Sakuma said. “The industry is highly engaged in critical conversations about our collective future, and that’s exactly what we need. Most growers recognize the urgency of the situation. Supply is outpacing demand today, and within five years, industry data shows the volume of blueberries in the marketplace is projected to double. Building demand, through supercharged marketing, is the one thing we can do together to address the challenge and make the biggest impact, but it will take more to do more.”
The increased assessment will allow USHBC to support previously unaffordable premium advertising to encourage blueberry fans to increase their blueberry purchases in new, culturally relevant ways, Sakuma said.
USHBC plans to expand marketing activities including retail promotions, digital marketing and e-commerce, foodservice, ingredient marketing and public relations, Sakuma said.
Mike Townsend, president of Townsend Farms, a Fairview, Oregon, grower, shipper and processor of blueberries and other berries, opposes assessment increases, because he said interests in other countries, including Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, control the council because they pay 60% of council dues.
“They only look at the U.S. market as a small piece of the puzzle in terms of distribution to our U.S. citizens who want to eat blueberries,” Townsend said. “The industry cannot serve two masters. The industry has grown to the point where it’s not useful for U.S. growers anymore at all. They’re moving the fruit that they make very little money on. It’s negating our growers. It’s stopping our growers from profitability, and they’re making all the money they want on the first flush of their fruit that goes fresh. Selling the fruit in the U.S. is putting a lid, a cap on our future in the U.S. as frozen growers.”
In a February grower meeting in Oregon, Townsend called USHBC “the United Nations blueberry council.”
“As we analyze our positions in the industry, it’s always one guy’s got to win, the other guy’s got to lose,” he said. “I would ask that we all sit at a table, both the big multinational sales groups along with these other countries. They need to work with us to come up with something that’s workable for U.S. growers.”
Domestic growers aren’t expected to pay the higher assessments until 2027, with 2028 being the first full budget year the council could use the increased funds to build increased demand, according to the USHBC.
Sakuma points to the avocado and watermelon industries’ gains following grower assessment boosts.
The 2003 increase in avocado industry assessments afforded improved marketing that helped expand the total U.S. avocado market from $1.3 billion in 2003 to more than $7 billion in 2021, while maintaining real producer prices, Sakuma said. In 2024, the National Watermelon Promotion Board increased its assessments on domestic and import producers and handlers to support expanded consumer, retailer and foodservice marketing.
By Doug Ohlemeier, Assistant Editor