Which are the countries that produce the most blueberries in the world? Blueberries are an underrated fruit, and hence, do not receive the same prestige and attention as some of the more common fruits grown in the world, such as bananas, apples, and oranges. The main reason behind this is that blueberries require very specific conditions in which they can be grown, conditions which rarely occur, and hence they are generally only grown in North America. If you want further details regarding the agricultural produce of the top countries, you can visit the top 10 agriculture producing countries in the world.
In fact, blueberry bushes were not introduced in the continent of Europe until less than a century ago! Blueberry plants can grow quite tall in height, up to 4 meters, though some plants are less than a meter tall, which basically means that there is no set size for their growth.
The berries grown in the plant turn deep purple when they become ripe. The fruit, when ripe, can be extracted from the plant. It has a sweet flavor and a varying level of acidity. Blueberries are grown in the middle of the growing season, though the timing can be significantly affected by differing conditions such as different latitude as well as altitude.
Blueberries can be both cultivated or picked off from wild bushes. There have been breeding programs established in order to produce different varieties and types of blueberries in the United States of America. Some of these plants can produce larger than average fruit.
While blueberries were typically grown in the United States alone for much of history, they are now also grown in Europe, countries which fall in the Southern Hemisphere and even China as well. In the United States of America, the state of Washington produces the most blueberries, and is followed by Michigan, Georgia, Oregon and then New Jersey.
Meanwhile, Maine produced around 10% of all the blueberries grown in the entire continent of North America, in terms of acres harvested. Furthermore, Canada has also been active in the blueberry growth, with the growth of blueberries accounting for around half of the total fruit production in the country.
While blueberries were historically harvested via berry picking rakes, nowadays, machine harvesters are the tool preferred by farmers to harvest blueberries, which is done via shaking the high rising cultivated blueberry bushes, to allow the berries to drop off the plant and be picked easily. Further work is being done in order to develop machinery or tools which can result in easy harvesting of low blueberry bushes, or wild bushes.
The fruit, after being harvested, is taken to a facility where it is cleaned, then packaged and finally sold. However, in Mexico, packing is often carried out by farmers directly at the site of harvesting, and even the sale may be carried out from the site. On the other hand, the fruit is sometimes also stored at different warehouses before it is sold.
Blueberries can be sold as fresh fruit, or they may be processed and sold as frozen fruit, in addition to being made into juice, jams, jellies, muffins, cereals and snack foods.
Blueberries have a low-calorie content, which makes them one of the healthiest foods you can have. Pesticides are widely used for the growth of blueberries, which is why the Environmental Working Group has rated the blueberries as being a significant concern.
We sought to determine the 8 countries that produce the most blueberries in the world. For this purpose, we referred the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. There are very few countries which produce blueberries, so this list wasn’t really that hard to create. Without further ado, here are the countries according to blueberry production, starting with number 8:
10. New Zealand
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 2,718 tonnes
9. Sweden
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 2,888 tonnes
8. Spain
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 5,000 tonnes
7. Netherlands
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 5,498 tonnes
6. France
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 9,011 tonnes
5. Mexico
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 2,718 tonnes
4. Germany
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 10,277 tonnes
3. Poland
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 12,731 tonnes
2. Canada
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 109,007 tonnes
1. The United States of America
Amount of blueberries produced annually: 239,071 tonnes
Producing more than twice the amount of blueberries than its nearest competitor, the United States of America easily blows away the competition and ends up with the top ranking in 10 countries that produce the most blueberries in the world.
