The United States is by far Canada’s best blueberry customer and that is expected to continue with or without tariffs, according to Paul Pryce, executive director of the British Columbia Blueberry Council. But if tariffs are imposed on Canadian imports, there will likely be ramifications, particularly for B.C. growers.

 President Donald Trump has put on hold 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

 “If there are additional costs, the goods will still flow,” Pryce said at the Oregon Blueberry Conference Feb. 4 in Salem. “It’s just going to really erode the margins for a lot of our growers who are still kind of recovering from a bad year in 2023.”

 The tariffs also could lead to a decline in market share for U.S. blueberry packers in at least one foreign market, he said, noting that an arrangement between blueberry packers in B.C. and in Washington state will likely be dissolved. 

Under the arrangement, packers in British Columbia send blueberries to Washington to be repacked under Halal certification before exporting berries to Malaysia. Malaysia requires blueberries to be packed under the certification before accepting product, and Pryce said that B.C. packers have found it easier to send berries to Washington for repackaging rather than get the certification.

 “I do have to say that a fair amount of packers (in British Columbia) would obtain that Halal certification (if tariffs are imposed),” he said. “They would start to compete in Malaysia, and we would just see that race to the bottom where we’re both oversupplying this small market trying to capture each other’s market share.”

 From early in his presentation, tariffs were central in Pryce’s presentation titled “Blueberry Production and Global Market Perspective from British Columbia.” He said that when he agreed to speak at the conference tariffs were not proposed, otherwise he might have gone with a different title. “I might have gone with something like, ‘Don’t Tariff Me Bro,’” he said.

 Pryce noted that the U.S. is by far Canada’s largest foreign blueberry supplier moving 119 million pounds of blueberries into Canada last year. And Canada is by far the largest export market for U.S. blueberries, far outpacing Mexico, the second largest export market for U.S. blueberries.

 “You’re our best customer and we’re your best customer,” he said.

 In recent years, the U.S. has been operating at a slight trade deficit in blueberries, he noted, a deficit that approached 20 million pounds last year, but he believes that will change as B.C. growers engage in extensive replanting.

 “About a third of our acreage needs replanting,” he said. “We’ve got some issues with shock and scorch virus. We’ve also got old stock, so a lot of that needs to be taken out and replaced.”

 Meanwhile, consumption of blueberries in Canada is strong, he said, and Canada will need imports to meet that demand. Canada leads the world in per capita consumption of blueberries at just around 3.5 pounds of fresh blueberries per year, he said.

 “Canadians cannot get enough blueberries,” he said. “They are crazy about berries.”

 B.C. growers produced approximately 180 million pounds of blueberries in 2024, which is up from their five-year average of around 155 million pounds. Only 70 million of the 180 million pounds went into the fresh market.

 “There were some issues with splitting that we encountered last year, hence a lot of berries went to frozen, processed or sometimes even juice,” Pryce said. Excess rainfall the last week of July and first week of August and an unfamiliarity with the variety Calypso, newly planted on a high percentage of their acreage, were factors in the quality issues, he said.