Blueberry growers worried they won't survive if U.S. introduces tariffs
Economic development expert urges firm Canadian response to tariff threat
New Brunswick blueberry farmers are facing a lot of uncertainty in the face of market pressures, climate change and the threat of import tariffs by the United States.
"If the price of blueberries goes any lower than it is now, there's no way that we can survive," said Murray Tweedie, who operates a 7,000-acre farm in Kouchibouguac, north of Moncton.
His blueberries sold for $0.40 a pound last year, down from $1.10 a few years ago.
"It's hard for these farmers to to manage their operations when they're not even getting the money they need in order to operate the farm," Donald Arseneault, executive director of N.B. Blueberries, said.
Blueberry farming has contributed $10 million to $30 million a year to the provincial GDP over the last eight years and employs about 300 people, according to an economic impact report prepared for the growers group in 2022.
Most New Brunswick blueberries bound for U.S.
The two main buyers of New Brunswick blueberries are Oxford, based in Nova Scotia, and Wymans, which has facilities in P.E.I. and Maine.
Tweedie said the bulk of the 400 million pounds of blueberries produced in the Maritimes and Quebec end up sold in the United States.
They have to be price-competitive with the 400-billion pounds of cultivated blueberries grown in Peru and other countries, said Arseneault, because most grocery store shoppers don't know the difference.
The berries found during most of the year in the fresh produce section are the cultivated variety and come from places with climates that allow year-round production, he said.
Wild blueberries are smaller, more tart, and more nutritious, but they have a shorter shelf life, so they have to be frozen or processed quickly.
Tariffs could mean less money for farmers
If a tariff is imposed, Arseneault and Tweedie expect there will be pressure to minimize the impact on prices in stores by paying farmers less for their crops.
The tariff is going to be passed on to somebody, Arseneault said.
For local growers, it could be devastating, he said.
Production has fluctuated widely, depending largely on the weather, from a low of 27 million pounds in 2020 to a high of 84 million in 2022.
Tweedie said after some banner years of high yields and prices, the last two have not been profitable.
It's very difficult to predict what will happen next, he said, but the outlook for 2025 is about 45 million pounds.
There's no easy solution, said Arseneault, but he hopes all levels of governments are paying close attention.
For one thing, wild blueberry marketers will have to do a better job setting their product apart, he said.
There is also potential to increase sales to other markets, in Europe and Asia, for example, but the U.S. is a very attractive market, because of its proximity and population of more than 330 million people, he said.
Donald Savoie, a renowned professor at the University of Moncton who specializes in public administration and economic development, said historically, Canada has benefited a great deal from being next door to the large, open U.S. market,
It's important to be firm in responding to the threat of tariffs, he said, because they could cause a lot of economic damage in the next four years.
Although the United States is "a juggernaut" that must be dealt with carefully, Canada has tools it can use, Savoie said.
It's not true, he said, that the U.S. subsidizes Canada and has no need of Canadian resources, as has been asserted by incoming president Donald Trump.
Canada exports a great deal of raw material to the U.S., including lumber, oil and gas, he noted.
"If you want to play a tariff game and throw falsehoods around, we're not going to sit back and do nothing."
Savoie thinks it's also likely that tariffs on Canadian goods will fall off Trump's agenda quickly once he's in office and has to deal with more pressing political issues.
Despite the uncertainty, Tweedie has gone ahead with arrangements to hire farm workers for next season and has ordered bees for pollination.
"We have to run on the hopes that things will improve," he said.
We can't back off on inputs," he said. If he did it would affect crops for multiple years to come.
Tweedie has approval to hire six farm workers from Jamaica starting in April. He's responsible for paying their airfare and providing an allowance for food and other supplies they need when they first arrive.
Their work will include mowing fields that were harvested last year, filling holes where rocks have been removed so blueberry plants can spread there, and building more fencing to keep out bears, which do a lot of damage to both berry plants and bee hives, he said.
He's also agreed to hire 14 other foreign farm workers later in the season, after their work is complete at greenhouses in Sussex and Woodstock.
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with files from Information Morning Moncton