Mexican blueberries

Blueberry exports from Mexico to the United States grew 57% year-on-year from January to April 2021.

With this, these sales reached 313.5 million dollars, according to data from the United States Department of Commerce.

Backwards, blueberry exports from Mexico to that destination showed an increasing trajectory: after reaching $ 289 million in 2018, they rose to $ 291 million in 2019 and then to $ 352 million in 2020.

Each year, early national blueberry production begins with the Florida harvest (except for small volumes from California), with supplies peak from April through early May.

Turning to the current year, the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service reported the first shipments from Florida in 2021 for the week ending March 13.

California produces blueberries year-round, with larger supplies from May through July.

For its part, the North American Blueberry Council (NABC) estimated the total US blueberry harvest in 2020 at 627 million pounds less than last year, with 340.8 million pounds for the produce market. fresh and 286.3 million pounds for the processing market.

Blueberry Exports

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC, for its acronym in English) determined on February 11 not to impose tariffs on US imports of blueberries originating in Mexico.

11 years ago, Mexico did not export this product to the US market, but as of the following year, its external sales to that destination have grown continuously until now.

In September of last year, the United States Trade Representative requested the USITC to initiate an investigation of safeguard global to these imports under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, a remedy he used for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Although wild blueberries are mainly sold on the frozen market, a small portion is sold on the fresh market.

With respect to cultivated blueberries, there is no clear dividing line distinguishing which blueberries will be sold fresh or frozen and substantial volumes of cultivated blueberries.

While blueberries for the fresh market are primarily hand-picked and processing blueberries are primarily machine-harvested, the harvesting methods overlap.