Blueberries a $135m boom crop

RIDLEY Bell knows his blueberries and he says size matters.

Brothers Jas (left) and Bob Benning at their blueberry farm in Woolgoolga, just north of Coffs Harbour, NSW. Picture: Lindsay...

RIDLEY Bell knows his blueberries and he says size matters. The breeding work that has enthused him for nearly 40 years strives for big berries, not just to tempt consumers. Big berries are faster and easier to pick. And that brings down the cost of production.

“But the texture is really important,” he insists. “It needs to be crisp and sweet, a little like grapes. Ninety-nine per cent of the big berries we trialled were mealy and soft, with a poor flavour. They won’t do.”

It is the exacting attitude displayed by growers such as the Bell family that has placed Australia at the centre of a worldwide blueberry boom. Local production has quadrupled in the past seven years, while global volumes have trebled in the past 10 years, making blueberries the fastest growing fresh produce product, thanks in part to varieties developed right here.

Today, the blueberry industry locally is worth more than $135 million in retail sales and demand is booming, driven partly by the health benefits of the fruit.

The production increases are impressive, but local growers are even more ambitious. They don’t merely have global expansion in their sights but aim to create a growing industry that never stops.

The boom is etched on rolling hillsides around Coffs Harbour in northern NSW, where blueberries have become the region’s main fruit crop.

Grower Bob Benning’s family is one of about 200 Indian Sikh families in the Woolgoolga area who form an important blueberry-growing hub.

“We all used to grow bananas, but it stopped being profitable so we’ve diversified into blueberries,” he says. “We had the land and started planting the early varieties more than 25 years ago.”

Most in the area are family businesses, and the KS Benning brand is one of the biggest. The ties within the Sikh community remain strong.

“We’re very traditional,” Benning says. “We hang on to our cultural and religious values, especially those of us with a Punjabi background.”

Benning says the enormous potential of the blueberry industry is tempered only by the high cost of production, particularly labour. “We’ve got to get more plants in the ground and more people growing them. We haven’t even scratched the surface here; the potential figures are mind-boggling.”

The longer berries are left on the bush, the more their healthy properties develop. The berries are high in fibre and vitamin C, and have good levels of A, E, B vitamins and manganese and very high levels of antioxidants.

They have anti-inflammatory properties, are effective at lowering “bad” cholesterol, help protect against coronary heart disease and stroke. Studies have indicated blueberries help prevent dementia, improve memory, reduce the risk of diabetes and promote urinary-tract health.

Traditionally, blueberries were grown in a summer season from December that lasted until April. However, Bell and others in the industry were far more ambitious, Now the industry’s heart of northern NSW and southern Queensland produce the fruit as early as June, accounting for more than 80 per cent of Australian output.

The quest to grow the fruit from April to June, creating a year-round season, is well under way, thanks to the breeding of warm-tolerant varieties and growing in climates that ripen the berries earlier, such as the Bundaberg area and the Atherton Tableland.

Two hours’ drive north of the Bennings, Ridley Bell’s company, Mountain Blue Orchard, is based at Lindendale, near Lismore. Bell is considered by many to be the godfather of the local blueberry industry: he worked on the earliest research project into the crop, for the Horticultural Research Institute in Knoxfield, Victoria.

“In 1976 I took some blueberries to the fruit merchants at Footscray and no one knew what they were,” he recalls.

Now he grows blueberries at Lindendale and at Tabulam, west of Casino. “It’s the riskiest part of the business,” says Bell. Vagaries of weather, and birds that love blueberries are the main challenges.

The nursery division propagates, grows and sells plants to commercial growers, producing more than a half-million plants each year. But it is Bell’s breeding work that drives the other business units. While consumers want size, flavour and texture, growers look for resistance to rust disease, and bushes that set fruit on the outside rather than hidden inside the foliage, making for easy harvesting.

By licensing their premium varieties to earn royalties from growers across the world, the Bell family company is building an international business. Daughter Natalie Bell (three out of four of Bell’s offspring are in the family business) heads marketing.

“It’s a global strategy for our family,” she says. “We are developing alliances around the world with the goal to supply targeted markets all year. For instance, our interests in Morocco are timed for the European market, and we have partners in the USA. We’re also looking at how we can provide a 12-month supply to Asia.”

The Moroccan venture is British-led and another backer is one of Mountain Blue Orchard’s major rivals, the local $1 billion Costa fruit and vegetable empire.

As part of a joint venture with giant US firm Driscolls, Costa has growers and alliances in five states, and its principal farm at Corindi, north of Coffs Harbour, is the largest single blueberry planting in Australia, covering 300ha. It is a global leader in breeding programs and has an alliance with the University of Florida, regarded as one of the world’s leading blueberry genetics specialists.

Costa’s Australian-bred varieties are licensed exclusively through North America, South America and Asia.

In Australia, industry development officer Phillip Wilk estimates the total area under production approaches 1000ha, producing 5000 tonnes of blueberries annually. All are harvested by hand, with workers picking a bush up to six times over eight to 10 weeks. It’s labour intensive, which keeps production costs high.

Meantime, demand outstrips supply. Mountain Blue’s Tabulam orchard will expand fivefold during the next two years and more growers are expected to expand into Queensland to ensure year-round supply. It’s a success story that is putting smiles on the faces of growers and consumers.

Says general manager Peter McPherson: “We’ve having a record-breaking season here. When you get mother nature on side, you can really kick some goals.”

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BLUEBERRY FACT FILE

Blueberries are native to North America. Their genus Vaccinium is in the same family as azaleas and ericas.

Blueberry shrubs can be deciduous or evergreen, grow 1m-3m tall, and can live up to 30 years. It’s important to choose a variety suited to your local climate. Many varieties benefit from cross-pollination.

Delicate white to pink bell flowers precede the berries.

Mature bushes yield 4kg-7kg of berries, depending on variety.

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GROWING REQUIREMENTS

Soil must be acidic (pH around 5), well-drained, with ample organic matter. For acidic soil, add powdered sulphur, pine needles or composted oak leaves.

Avoid poultry manure and mushroom compost.

Blueberries do well in pots, using potting mix for azaleas.

Grow in full sun to light shade, with summer water.

Keep the shallow roots mulched to protect ripening fruit from birds with netting.

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BERRY INDUSTRY RETAIL VALUE

Strawberries $358 million

Blueberries $138 million

Raspberries $57 million

Blackberries $8 million

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RECIPE

Bathers Pavilion blueberry pancakes

Serve these fancy pancakes when friends drop in for breakfast

Serves 4

6 eggs

250 ml (1 cup) milk

150 g (5 oz) sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

350 g (111/2 oz) plain flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp yoghurt

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, crushed

maple syrup

METHOD:

1. Separate eggs. Whisk together milk, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks, then add flour

and baking powder. Mix until smooth.

2. Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form.

3. Fold one-third of egg white mixture and the yoghurt into batter with a wooden spoon

until well combined, then gently fold through the rest of the egg whites. Add crushed blueberries.

4. Heat a crepe pan or nonstick frying pan over low to medium heat. Brush the pan

with a little butter and cook the pancakes one at a time.

5. For each pancake, ladle 1/4 cup of batter

into the pan and cook for about 2 minutes, or until bubbles appear on the surface. Turn the pancake over and cook for another minute. Transfer to a plate and keep warm while cooking the rest of the pancakes.

6. Serve the pancakes in stacks with plenty of maple syrup.

From the Bathers’ Pavilion Cafe Cookbook