Superfresh Growers has 700 acres of blueberries grown in the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon, where the mild, dry climate is ideal for producing delicious, large, high-quality blueberries over a long season.

When summer arrives, many of the best U.S. blueberries begin hitting produce aisles. With import problems from earlier in the year from places like Chile and Peru, consumers are looking forward to fresh blueberries.

Naturipe Farms is among the largest supplier of blueberries in the world and has been selling blueberries to consumers for more than 70 years.

“There have been a lot of changes over the years,” said Brian Bocock, vice president of product management at Naturipe Farms. “We have evolved from pulp fiber and cellophane containers to clamshells in 1992 and Naturipe Farms lead that charge.”

Blueberries have long been an important part of the business at D’Ottavio Farms in Vineland, NJ. As just one example of that importance, the company built another cooler specifically for all those berries. The timing couldn’t be better, with the start of the New Jersey blueberry season right around the corner.

With good spring weather in southern New Jersey, Diamond Blueberry Inc.’s Dave Berger was expecting “a nice crop” of New Jersey blueberries this coming season.

“The weather’s been good — hot and dry,” Berger said Wednesday, May 19. “We had a little bit of cool weather earlier. We’ve had good pollination weather. It looks pretty good right now, but you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week.”

The state of New Jersey should have more blueberries than it did last year, according to Art Galletta, president of Atlantic Blueberry Co., based in Hammonton, NJ.

“We should have slightly more volume than last year,” Galletta said. “It’s looking pretty decent.”