Brittany Lee was on her blueberry farm near Waldo, and she remembers it vividly.
“There was a 70% sales loss compared to that same week the year prior just in that first week of April. People weren’t going to stores, everyone was staying home for two weeks,” Lee said.
On the first day of the harvest season at Florida Blue Farms on Tuesday, there were no blue feelings only blueberries.
“States are reopening, people are getting back into grocery stores, and really at the end of the day, we have a product people want. We have Fresh from Florida blueberries that are healthy,” Lee said.
Brad Haire
In December, U.S. blueberry growers launched the American Blueberry Growers Alliance to rally political support and awareness against rising imports. Southeast fruit and vegetable producers face a continued marketing crisis from imports.
Like other U.S. fruit and vegetable growers in recent years, U.S. blueberry producers face a continued marketing crisis from imports and are organizing to address the problem.
Last September in response to industry efforts, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asked the International Trade Commission, or ITC, to start a Section 201 global safeguard investigation into increased blueberry imports and if they caused injury or threat to U.S. blueberry growers.