It's the story of two seasons for Florida blueberry growers. Growers were ahead of last year's harvest, but found COVID-19 that kept prices low.

Cooler weather this year has slowed the growth of the blueberry crop, meaning it will likely be ready for its normal time frame. Hopefully that will mean better prices for producers like Ryan Atwood.

“The weather was colder in January and a good part of February. The weather has been warming up lately. We're probably catching up a bit lately. It's not going to be like last year,” said Atwood, who lives in Mount Dora, Florida and grows 56 acres of blueberries, manages another 350 acres and co-owns the largest packinghouse in the southeastern United States. “It was horrible the way the whole of last year played out. It was almost as if the rug had been pulled out from under him. But you live to fight another day."

Warmer temperatures in 2020

A milder winter last year accelerated the growth of last year's blueberries. Atwood began harvesting large volumes of blueberries around March 18. But it also coincided with the pandemic that closed the country. Market prices reflected the impact of the pandemic.

Early harvests have already started for this year's crop.

“We started scrapping, picking the Evergreen stuff lightly,” Atwood said. “We are a long way from the main part of our harvest. We cultivate a small area of ​​evergreen production. But most of our production is deciduous, and that won't increase until later. “We picked up 400, 500 pounds two weeks ago. Then we picked up 1.800 pounds last week. Now, we're picking up 3,000 pounds this week."