Copyright Bangor Daily News
Extreme weather made for a hard year for Maine’s wild blueberry industry, and the season’s losses have leaders looking for emergency funds to help keep growers in business. Wet conditions during the pollination period and a fast-onset drought during the harvest combined to drop yields significantly, causing major losses for some growers. The drought steadily worsened through the summer and fall and now is considered extreme for nearly the entire southern half of the state. “We sold very little to the processor, because it all burned up,” said Lisa Hanscom, of Welch Farm in the Washington County town of Roque Bluffs. Her family farm lost 28 of the 32 acres they expected to harvest this year. Overall, growers brought in about 54.9 million pounds of berries this summer, “a pretty significant loss” that represents close to $30 million in estimated lost income, according to Eric Venturini, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission. That’s almost 30 million pounds less than in 2024. It comes at a time when many growers in the state’s iconic industry have already been running on thin margins or below profitability, with the cost of production and market competition from cultivated blueberries increasing, Venturini said. When yields are lower, the cost of producing a pound of berries goes up; that production cost this year was an estimated 40 to 50 percent higher than in 2023, according to Venturini, putting more strain on growers. “With a year like this when, frankly, there’s a crop failure, the impact of the hit to producers is really magnified in this bigger context,” he said. “They don’t have the capital to absorb these losses.” In response, the commission is looking into “exploring several avenues” for emergency relief funds to keep growers going. At their next meeting in December, commissioners will also talk about whether the commission itself has the authority to provide some funds to growers. Sen. Susan Collins earlier this week asked USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to include Maine wild blueberry growers, apple orchards and hay farmers as it considers releasing emergency funding. Those three key Maine industries faced setbacks in this year’s ongoing drought, which began this summer. It now stretches across the state, categorized as “extreme” in most of the southern half of the state and “severe” in northern Maine. The commission is also looking at other funding options, Venturini said, but declined to go into specifics yet. He also declined to say how much might be necessary to make up for the losses. For Hanscom, who also chairs the commission, the drought ended the harvest season about two weeks early. The loss was “devastating” and meant the farm couldn’t fulfill orders or keep on crew members to hand rake and process fruit. They hired a mechanical harvester, but after getting just two boxes of berries out of a 12-acre field, he wouldn’t do more because it wasn’t worth the cost of gas. The farm and its wild blueberry plants had just started recovering from the 2020 drought, Hanscom said; the current drought was worse, and she’s worried the fruit buds for next year were also negatively affected. “When we have a drought like this, [its impact] lasts for several years,” she said. Along with looking for short-term funds to keep growers from leaving the industry, the commission also is pushing for longer-term solutions to manage the impacts of future droughts, Venturini said. Adding irrigation and sustainable sources of water such as wells or retention ponds are priorities, he said. “It’s something we really need to invest resources into for the economic sustainability of this incredible crop,” he said. If emergency funds become available, Hanscom said she would look into irrigation, which she’s been wanting to do but can’t afford. Her family farm is also considering options for mulching fields to retain moisture or purchasing a smaller mechanical harvester they could run themselves without working around a hired person’s schedule if weather conditions change suddenly. It would also help with simpler line items, like paying the property taxes on her fields. “I think everything’s on the table,” she said of options for relief.
