Two hard frost events in June have destroyed more than half of Nova Scotia’s wild blueberry crop, putting the province’s producers in a tight spot.
CBC News reported that both severe weather events have damaged an estimated 70% of all wild blueberry crop in the province. Unfortunately, most blueberry producers in the province lack insurance to cover for the losses.
The damage to the crop is so severe, that farmers are deliberating whether they should even bother harvesting what remains of the blueberries.
“The prices that are offered for the fruit will determine whether it is economical to harvest it or not,” Wild Blueberry Producers Association of Nova Scotia executive director Peter Rideout told CBC News.
Rideout added that on top of the frost-induced losses, blueberry producers in the province have suffered two years of low blueberry prices, when the cost of production outstripped crop prices.
“Growers were coming into this season at an economic disadvantage,” he explained. “They already had a heavy debt load.”
David Percival, a researcher with the Wild Blueberry Network Information Centre, noted that the frost will also have an effect on next year’s crops, since new sprouts were also ruined by the weather event.
“There is going to be a trickle-down effect that we have to go through before things improve,” he remarked.
Percival suggested that blueberry farmers need financial assistance to cover the cost of production, which can reach up to $3,600 per hectare. That assistance is not likely to come anytime soon, if a statement from the Department of Agriculture is to be believed.
In an email to CBC News, government spokesperson JoAnn Alberstat confirmed that the department is still in the early stages of gathering information. Alberstat added that the frost is not an unusual event in the province’s climate and that insurance is available.
