Blueberry Production

The development of blueberry bushes is a continuous process that includes using parent plants to provide material to cultivate new plants.

To begin this process branches are taken from established bushes and cut into five centimetre stalks called cuttings. The cuttings are struck into trays and placed in fog houses.

Once cuttings have sufficient roots, they are transferred into four inch pots. Potted plants are grown out in full sun and require daily watering and fertilizing once a week.

After five months plants are ready to be planted in the field. From planting, it takes approximately 15 months for a blueberry plant to begin producing fruit.

The majority of Australian blueberries are hand picked. Workers carefully select ripe berries. Quite often blueberries on the bush are at different stages of ripeness so a bush can be picked up to six times throughout a season.

From a picker’s bucket, fruit is transferred in crates to the packing shed, where quality assurance programs are adopted to ensure the quality and freshness of the berries. In packing sheds fruit will be quickly chilled using force fans.

With the increasing information available, different methods of fruit sorting is used throughout Australia. In recent times, machine packing has been used successfully but the majority of Australian blueberries are packed through human sorting chains. All blueberries travel in refrigerated trucks to ensure they arrive fresh to their destination.

Australian blueberries are supplied to wholesalers, independent fruit shops, supermarkets and international markets such as Asia and Europe. Retailers can have blueberries on their shelves within 24 hours of picking to enable them to buy, and enjoy, the freshest blueberries.

Blueberry establishment and production costs

Blueberry production is capital intensive with high development and labour costs.

However, the short time interval between establishment and first returns with Southern Highbush varieties coupled with high demand and reasonable prices will offset the high costs.

In northern NSW, growers using Southern Highbush redevelop blueberry beds in year 8 so the production cycle is from year three to year 7 (5 years).

Honey bee production in blueberries

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) managed by commercial beekeepers are currently the most suitable insect for commercial blueberry pollination in Australia.