With prices down, here’s what Whatcom raspberry farmers are doing

While it was a healthy raspberry harvest, it was not a healthy year for the wallets of Whatcom County farmers.

Whatcom County farmers harvested nearly 72.4 million pounds of raspberries this past summer, making it the second largest crop ever, according to data provided by Henry Bierlink, executive director of the Washington Red Raspberry Commission.

A large crop seemed very much in doubt at the beginning of the harvest back in July. The biggest problem was a flood of imported raspberries that not only depressed the field price, but some of the regular buyers began pulling offers. That left Whatcom farmers with plenty of berries but no place to send the product. Farmers were left to decide whether the remaining berries were worth harvesting.

Whatcom farmers were eventually able to find buyers, but at much lower field prices, Bierlink said in an email. He estimated local farmers were getting an average of 61 cents per pound for all grades of raspberries, 22 percent lower than in 2017. It’s also much lower than just three years ago, when farmers were getting $1.42 a pound according to The Bellingham Herald archives.

The harvest totals also widely differed from grower-to-grower based on what varieties they grew, commercial raspberry farmer Jon Maberry said in an email.

“I do know it was a very difficult year for all our growers,” Maberry said, adding that he estimates a high percentage of the Whatcom raspberry farmers will lose money this year.

Trade issues

What caused last year’s price collapse in the U.S. market last summer could happen again in 2019. In May and June there was a surge of raspberries imported into the U.S., it was reported in July. That caused buyers in the U.S. market to become less interested in fresh Whatcom raspberries, with several either pulling offers or offering much lower prices for them.

Mayberry said Eastern Europe and Mexico continue to flood the U.S. market with all grades of raspberries at reduced prices, but he and other farmers are currently working on a variety of legislative solutions. Maberry and fellow commercial raspberry farmer Brad Rader recently took a trip to Washington D.C. for several meetings, which Maberry called productive.

Even so, given that the industry has now had two years of low prices, Maberry expects to see a decline in Whatcom acres devoted to raspberries. His concern is what farmers may choose to do with that unused land.

“Where possible I’d expect to see increased residential or commercial development,” Maberry said.