This year, the co-op sold almost 644,000 pounds of fresh fruit, compared to 1.2 million pounds in 1995. The co-op is expected to sell about 2 million pounds of frozen berries, up from 1.1 million pounds sold in 1995. With daily rain, blueberries load up with water and leak juice when picked. If sold fresh, the berries can get sticky and mold at the store. However, these berries can be washed, packed and frozen.
Quality stays high, but the selling price drops.
Frozen berries are expected to sell for about 80 cents a pound, which is a good price for the frozen fruit. Going into this season, everyone was pretty much sold out. Most growers sell as many fresh blueberries as possible at the higher prices, and then sell the rest in the frozen market. Blueberry season opened the last week of May on the state's 1,700 acres of commercial farms. The fresh market closed July 9 in the southeastern part of the state where about 85 percent of the farms are located.