Blueberries...
Evergreen production

The buzz words in blueberry production worldwide at the moment are “evergreen production.” People including industry leaders are all giving their own interpretation as to the meaning of this phrase in blueberry production which was largely unheard of 10 years ago. Put 10 people in a room and ask them how it works and out come guarded views as they are trade secrets, offered with a little information and a whole array of body language.

The basics of this relatively new blueberry production technique were first seen in California and as the modern blueberry world now knows has arrived in Peru with a vengeance. With great land, fantastic and developing agricultural infrastructure and world class farming operations, these top-class guys have the ball to run with.

The current blueberry production down there is now approximately 4000 hectares from almost none 5 years ago. There is no sign of slowdown. In fact, blueberry plantations are now part of the landscape in the desert areas of Trujillo and Chiclayo.

This amazing increase in productivity is of course helping to supply the huge global increase in demand for our much-loved berry, but it's the evergreen production system that has allowed them to do this. The variety

currently being grown is Biloxi which was originally bred at USDA, Beltsville and released in 1998. This variety alone is currently the major contributor to the estimated $242million export business of blueberries. While we would all acknowledge the evergreen variety for the future will be much improved, this is much of what is commercially available today.

Evergreen production in basic terms means that the plant requires zero dormancy and therefore stays vegetative. With this continued growing cycle, the plant can be manipulated to a degree to produce flowers and therefore fruit to seasonal requirements, not overlooking of course localised temperature and weather fluctuations.  Biloxi will of course be replaced and many companies, such as Global Plant Genetics, are chasing the replacement evergreen variety for this market. Do we have it? Maybe we do yes, but time will tell.

In terms of the finer details of evergreen blueberry production and yields, well the devil is in the detail, but for sure if there are 10 growers in the room with their farmer hats on, mix up the conversation while drinking a beer and the yields get larger and the areas planted bigger, the longer they get into the evening. This I believe is international farmer speak and not crop specific.