This summer’s prolonged drought across Atlantic Canada has had a costly impact on wild blueberry growers in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Donald Arseneault, executive director of the industry group Bleuets NB Blueberries, said that as this year’s harvest was wrapping up, the total yield was believed to be 70 per cent less than the previous three-year average.
“This year has been tremendously dry and we haven’t really seen this in a long time,” Arseneault said, adding that this year’s crop amounted to about 20 million pounds, down from the annual average of 68 million pounds.
The industry, which ships its product around the world, was also hurt by delays caused by the provincial government’s decision to temporarily shut down the harvest as it tried to deal with a growing number of wildfires that flared up amid tinder-dry conditions.
“Farmers have lost so much money,” Arseneault said. “Unfortunately, we’ll probably see this again in future years as we
all battle through climate change.”
Donald Arseneault is the executive director of Bleuets NB Blueberries. (Submitted by Donald Arseneault)
Some of the province’s 175 wild blueberry farmers are now thinking about selling land to make ends meet, and they want financial compensation from the province’s Liberal government, he said.
“We’ve knocked on the government’s door,” Arseneault said. “We’re preparing our data and we’re hoping that the government will be there at the table with us to find a way.”
The wild blueberry industry estimates it contributed $81 million to the New Brunswick economy in 2021, the latest date for
which figures are available.
The world’s only commercial wild blueberry industry is concentrated in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Maine, where the export-driven industry routinely boasts of how its wild plants — also known as lowbush blueberries — produce a sweeter, more potent flavour than their cultivated highbush counterparts.
In 2024, lowbush blueberries were Canada’s second most valuable fruit export, generating $313 million, according to
Statistics Canada data. Highbush blueberries generated the most export value at $382 million. Apples, cranberries and strawberries were the next most valuable exports.
As their name implies, wild blueberries can’t be planted. Instead, they can only be encouraged to grow by producers who tend to a crop that can only be found in highly acidic, well-drained soil. Their cultivated cousins are planted in rows like most other crops.
Most valuable export crop in Nova Scotia
In Nova Scotia, wild blueberries represent the province’s most valuable export crop, generating $121 million in annual exports, well ahead of the apple industry’s $31 million, according to provincial data.
Janette McDonald, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Producers Association, says hot, dry weather is being blamed for reducing yields by 55 per cent to about 20 million pounds. As well, she says higher-than-average overnight temperatures also hurt the plants.
“Also of concern is what next year’s crop is going to look like,” she said in an interview. “Wild blueberries are biennial.
So we have fields that don’t produce in one year, and those are called sprout fields. And this year, the sprout fields are also seeing damage.”
Nova Scotia wildfires helped renew the province’s blueberry crop
A Nova Scotia blueberry farmer lost his equipment and 20 per cent of his crop in a wildfire this summer, but his fields are already showing sprouts of growth as the plants bounce back from the fire.
Prices being paid to growers are rising amid a lack of supply, she said.
“For many growers, even with an increase in the price that’s paid to them, they’re really not meeting their cost of
production,” McDonald said, adding that prices were low in the last two years. “So it’s tough for growers to manage the downturn.”
Still, she said it’s difficult to determine the impact on growers because many of them have other crops to rely on, and others have jobs outside of farming.
“I think it’s too early to tell what that’s really going to look like in the months ahead, but certainly the market demand is there,” McDonald said.
A spokesperson for the P.E.I. Wild Blueberry Growers Association could not be reached for comment, but published reports suggest the Island’s yields have not fallen as sharply as that of its closest neighbours.
In 2023, Quebec accounted for 42 per cent of Canada’s wild blueberry production, followed by New Brunswick at 25 per cent, Nova Scotia at 21 per cent and P.E.I. at 11 per cent, according to federal data.