Dive Brief:
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Blueberries, peaches, strawberries and apples were all seriously impacted by late-season freezes earlier this month in Georgia and South Carolina, according to an Associated Press article in Food Manufacturing.
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About 85% of South Carolina's peach crop is gone, while 80% of Georgia's blueberries were wiped out. Officials said the crop losses could be close to $1 billion.
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The mid-March freeze isn't unusual in the Southeast, but the previously mild winter led many crops to bloom up to three weeks early.
Dive Insight:
Few consumers stop and wonder how it is that it's possible these days to buy fresh blueberries year round. Unlike peaches, which are primarily a domestic crop, blueberries are increasingly being imported from Chile and elsewhere in South America. According to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, Chile exports more than 223.3 million tons of blueberries to the U.S.
The growing season there, being virtually the opposite of that in the U.S, allows for in-store availability when essentially the only available “fresh” fruit is the apple — which is only as fresh as cold storage makes possible.
How quickly can the peach and blueberry crops be expected to bounce back from the 2017 season stresses? Fortunately, those trees and bushes tend to be quite hardy, and don't seem to “remember” weather occurrences from one season to another. Pruning could cause some of them to remain less than fully productive until the 2019 season, but it's safe to say lover's of what's often called “the world's healthiest food” will have enough to go around next year.