In this installment of the ‘Agronometrics In Charts’ series, Cristian Crespo F. illustrates how the U.S. market is evolving. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

After a recent streak of high prices in the U.S. market, the price of blueberries dropped sharply last week. In this "Agronometrics In Charts", we will take a tour of the prices and volumes of blueberries in the North American market, and discuss the possible causes that gave rise to this fall.

A delayed season in Florida and Georgia due to weather problems left a window between the production of the southern hemisphere and the entry of the northern hemisphere.

The prices of blueberries in the North American market remained high, having their highest point in weeks 15 and 16 of 2021, where average prices per kilogram were $11.70 per kilogram, a 73 percent increase year-on-year.

As Georgia entered the market and Florida reached its peak in week 16, prices fell sharply though they are still higher year-on-year, as can be seen in the following graph.

Historic average blueberry prices | USD/KG

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics) [Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here]

In the graph below you can see the two-week lag of Georgia's entry compared to last year; this is in addition to a Florida season that was behind.

Volumes of blueberries from Georgia | KG

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics) [Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here]

Although the high volumes from Mexico in the last two weeks clearly had an effect on the prices that are being seen in the market today, it should also be noted that blueberry volumes that are reaching the North American market have been the highest in recent years and have also sustained healthy prices.

All of this points to an increase in blueberry consumption in the United States and a more attractive market for growers.

Volumes of blueberries from Mexico | KG

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics) [Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here]

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 20 fruits we currently track.