HAMMONTON, NJ — Barring unforeseen weather problems during the upcoming harvest, industry veteran Tim Wetherbee is expecting more blueberries this season from New Jersey than last, with volume more on par with historical norms.

“Some weather events in 2012 hurt the volume,” reducing statewide volume to about 51 million pounds,” said Wetherbee, sales manager at Diamond Blueberry Inc., here, May 29. “The weather’s been a little on the cool side” so far, but barring unexpected weather problems during the upcoming harvest, he estimated that the state’s volume would approach 65 million pounds in 2013, “which would be about normal.”

The timing of this season’s blueberry crop also should be returning to normal, after 2012’s earliest start in several decades. “It’s normal timing this year,” Wetherbee said during an interview with The Produce News at his office, here in the community that calls itself the blueberry capital of the world. “We’re looking to start at mid-month [June]. That’s the general consensus.”

Looking at what the quality and condition of this year’s crop might be, Wetherbee said that while it was still a bit early to speak definitively about sizing since “the berries are forming now,” he did say that “it looks like we’re getting good sizing. We’re thinking positive at this point.”

As for his own company, which is the sales agent for Variety Farms and Bridge Avenue Farms, Wetherbee said that volume last year was about 550,000 flats.

For 2013, “If we have adequate labor, we’ll better that number,” he said. “But you don’t know [how the labor situation will be] until they’re here.” And the labor situation “has been a problem the last two or three years.”

As always, the New Jersey Blueberry Industry Advisory Council will be running radio spots in areas such as metropolitan New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Boston to help promote the New Jersey blueberry crop in 2013.

The spots will start around June 17 and run for three to four weeks, according to Wetherbee, who is chairman of the council, at a cost of about $35,000, about the same as last year.

And as things appeared at the end of May, those radio spots would be promoting a strong crop indeed. “The weather has been mild, the spring has been mild,” he said. “There have been no adverse effects that would hurt the 2013 blueberry season.”

Retailers therefore should see plenty of product “in time for the Fourth of July holiday,” he stated, which is “always a prime selling time” for the popular item at supermarkets and other distribution points.