The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council has proposed increasing its assessment from $18 per ton to $50 per ton for promotions and advertising to increase demand for the fruit.

Supply will continue to outpace demand for years if there isn’t a change, resulting in lower prices per pound for growers, according to a council flier.

The organization said slowing supply isn’t an option as that’s impossible to mandate or control across the industry.

All conventional growers of fresh and processed blueberries would be subject to the 278% assessment increase. Organic fruit assessment contributions are optional under a federal exemption.

Not much support

The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council has been meeting with growers to speak on the topic and Kasey Cronquist, president of the organization, gave a presentation Dec. 3 before the Lynden Ag Show and Washington Small Fruit Conference.

Alan Schreiber, executive director of the Washington Blueberry Commission, said there’s recognition that more needs to be done to market blueberries.

“There doesn’t appear at this time to be much grower support for an assessment of that size,” he added. The higher assessment could amount to $500 per acre, equal to some pesticide or fertilizer bills.

Schreiber stressed that the Washington Blueberry Commission had not taken an official position on the matter.

Tricky timing

Julie Pond, executive director of the Northwest Berry Foundation, said advertising brings benefits, but the timing of the proposal was tricky, as growers were facing increased input and labor costs.

“It’s like anything, when you request to have an increased cost on something, that will hurt the bottom line,” Pond said.

Naturally, there’s hesitancy, she added.

“The question is how much can the growers afford to put toward this assessment. And honestly, that greatly depends on the growers’ blueberry market,” Pond said.

Fresh market blueberries fetch higher prices than processed fruit, for example.

Schreiber said 85-90% of the Washington harvest this year was frozen berries.

Council budget

Any change in assessment requires an 18 month period to finalize, according to the Northwest Berry Foundation.

The new budget for the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council would be about $30 million.

The majority of the organization’s current $16.6 million budget comes from annual assessments.

That was $12.2 million in 2023, with $7.4 million coming from import assessments, and $4.8 from domestic assessments.

The council spent about $7.4 million on marketing and promotions that year, as well as an additional $2.9 million on export market promotions.

More blueberry coverage

USDA gives $1 million in food resiliency grants to Oregon operations

Ecology fines Washington blueberry farm again

Man eats nearly 18½ pounds of blueberries to win inaugural contest

Blueberry council hopes to get a boost from pro pickleball

Northwest blueberry industry hopes for rebound

National $4 million study to focus on blueberry rot