Outside of Korea, Oregon Blueberry Exports Down Substantially
For the second year in a row, South Korea topped all comers in importing fresh Oregon blueberries, nearly matching last year’s export volume in a year that saw dramatic declines elsewhere.
Overall, exports of fresh Oregon blueberries fell off substantially from 2014, when Oregon growers exported more than 3 million pounds.
Japan and Taiwan, particularly, imported far fewer Oregon blueberries than a year ago. Japan imports dropped 34 percent, going from 900,000 pounds in 2014 to just under 600,000 pounds this year. Taiwan imports of fresh Oregon blueberries dropped 30 percent, going from 760,000 in 2014 to 530,000 in 2015.
Japan and Taiwan still were the second and third biggest importers of fresh Oregon blueberries. Great Britain, with just over 130,000 pounds of imports, ranked fourth.
In all, as of early September, Oregon had exported just over 2.41 million pounds of fresh blueberries, nearly 20 percent less than a year ago.
Lindsay Eng, director of market access and certification programs for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, attributed at least some of the decline to this summer’s heat, which lowered fruit quality. “There was less exportable fresh fruit, from a quality standpoint,” Eng said.
Also, she said, the strong dollar may have diffused some demand, particularly In Japan, where British Columbia competes for market share.
In Korea, however, where Oregon does not compete with Canada for fresh market share, the 2015 export volume as of September 4 was only 8 percent below the 2014 volume, falling from 1.25 million pounds in 2014 to 1.14 million pounds this year.
On a side note, Eng said that ODA and the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service are asking South Korea to review its requirement that ODA monitor blueberry fields for tomato ringspot virus and tobacco ringspot virus. Under the trade protocol with Korea, ODA is required to monitor and sample fields in the top ten blueberry producing counties for the two ringspot viruses.
The department and APHIS also are asking Korean authorities to review the requirement for annual inspections of packing houses and blueberry fields.
Under current protocol, inspectors from Korea’s Quarantine and Inspection Authority annually conduct an inspection of Oregon packing houses that ship to Korea and monitor a cross section of fields authorized under the program. The inspections are designed to ensure packing houses are following the program’s sanitary and record-keeping protocol, and that the fields meet the program’s trapping and record-keeping protocol.
ODA and APHIS have informed Korean officials that the state will report disease outbreaks to Korea if plant health reports show that an outbreak has occurred, Eng said, and that ODA will continue to manage outbreaks should they occur.
Eng said the current protocol system is expensive and overly extensive.
“We (APHIS and ODA) will continue to pursue ways to make shipping to Korea more affordable and streamlined,” Eng said.
Korean officials had not responded to the requests as of the deadline for this newsletter.
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