Dive Brief:
- China is expected to soon become the world's largest consumer of blueberries -- and the world's largest producer.
- The sheer size of the blueberry surge in China is remarkable. Back in 2005 only 250 hectares of land in the entire country produced the fruit. By last year roughly 20,366 hectares were dedicated to blueberries.
- Most of that land has not yet produced fruit -- the plants are too young. The U.S. and Chile are the world's largest producers of blueberries to date.
Dive Insight:
The good news here for world trade is that as many blueberries as China can produce, it seems that the Chinese people can eat even more. Chilean blueberry exports to China grew 42% last year.
