Blueberry growers will need to adopt mechanical harvesting to reduce labour costs and establish a competitive edge from medium to long term to lower pricing, if imported product gets access to Australian markets.

That’s the message from a group of blueberry growers and researchers from NSW and Victoria, back from an international blueberry symposium in Portland, Oregon in the US.

Group leader, NSW Department of Primary Industries district horticulturist, Phil Wilk, said the tour and symposium was a real eye opener for the Australian industry.

He said recent well publicised neutraceutical benefits attributed to blueberries had resulted in demand outstripping supply and many countries were now expanding production from cooler temperate regions to milder sub tropical areas to provide year round crops.

"There is still huge potential unmet demand for blueberries worldwide and countries such as China and Chile are planting large orchards to meet it," Mr Wilk said.

"China is counter-season to Australia but Chile, which this year signed a free trade agreement with Australia, is not, and their cost of production is approximately half ours," he said.

"Chile has not made an application yet but we expect them to be knocking on our door in the next few years, wanting to export produce."

Chile’s best short term potential will be in the vastly larger US market, counter season to theirs.

However, the US is among the countries now expanding domestic production into milder sub tropical areas to meet its own demand, which could push Chile to look for other markets including Australia, particularly if our prices are higher.

Australia is well placed to adapt to the market - the major growing areas in the Lismore and Corindi areas in the north of the State produce about 80 per cent of the total Australian blueberry crop under sub tropical conditions.

Technology is where Australia needs to catch up.

"In contrast to Australia, machine harvesting is common in the US," Mr Wilk said.

"They have blueberry varieties that can be hand picked when prices are healthy for the fresh market and later machine harvested for processing when the price drops.

"Some larger Australian producers already machine harvest but only for the processing market.

"Orchard production systems will need to be laid out for future machine harvesting which may mean that steep land where many blueberries are now grown will be undesirable."

It may be necessary in future to harvest smaller farms using smaller mechanical harvesters owned by contractors or groups of growers.

These tow-behind machines are already being used on some properties in the US for harvesting young plants.

This would lower production costs which could then be passed on to consumers.

It is also hoped that lower prices would increase domestic per capita consumption, considering Australians already know the health benefits of the fruit.

The Australian Blueberry Growers Association is investing grower funds in marketing and advertising campaigns to address the issue of low consumption.

More than 300 participants attended the Oregon symposium, from countries including Finland, Holland, Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Morocco, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Poland, China, US, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Contact Phillip Wilk, Alstonville, (02) 6626 2450, phillip.wilk@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Further reading

Blueberry establishment and production costs

Blueberry production in northern NSW

Current best management practices for blueberry growers in northern NSW