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The argument from Nadia Bourely, the Canadian Embassy s minister-counsellor for economic and trade policy, boiled down to a simple premise: we re not the problem. We find it very difficult to see how blueberry imports, particularly imports from Canada, could have caused any injury to the U.S. blueberry industry, Bourely told an online hearing.
Between 2015 and 2019, she said, U.S. imports from Canada grew by only 15 per cent, while total imports grew nearly 56 per cent.
If anything, U.S. growers have benefited from accessing the Canadian market, said Bourely, who urged commissioners to consider each country s impact in isolation, rather than lumping them together.
Like many in America, farmers have gone through a difficult year in the face of a pandemic and an economic downturn. But across Michigan and other agricultural regions, we are resilient and hard-working contributors to our economy and our local communities.I have been farming blueberries in southwest Michigan for the past 16 years. Michigan has been growing blueberries for over 70 years and the fruit are a very important crop for Michigan’s economy. Test plantings began in the early 1920s.
The American Blueberry Growers Alliance is asking a trade commission to investigate.
For Rex Schultz, the retirement he’d planned from his full-time management job at True Blue Farms will likely be pushed back. He had hoped to concentrate solely on his 60 acres of blueberries on his Heritage Blueberry Farm in Bangor, Mich.
“But the profits are not there anymore,” he explains. Massive imports from mainly Canada, Mexico and Peru have diluted the market. “In the last five years, we ve lost over 30% of our pricing, combined with a 15% to 20% increase in inputs; we’re talking a hit of basically 45 to 50%,” Schultz adds.
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.