Berry Update. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The berry industry in the Pacific Northwest had another good year in 2009 according to Dennis Koong, Deputy Director of the Washington Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

KOONG: Overall berry production is up here in Washington specifically with blueberries and raspberries. We saw an acreage increase as well as really ideal growing conditions at least for raspberries in the state here.

The blueberry acreage is a record for Washington State at 4,500 acres up from 4,100 in 2008. Oregon planted some 6,900 acres of blueberries in 2009.

KOONG: In terms of production we saw a 13% increase in production for blueberries and a 19% production in raspberries over last year which left prices down from the previous year substantially mainly based on supply catching up with demand situation.

In addition to blueberries and red raspberries Washington grows cranberries and strawberries. Oregon also grows loganberries, boysenberries and black raspberries. Koong says that a lot of people don’t realize that there is a fairly significant amount of berry production in the NW.

KOONG: And part of the reason could be because the majority of the production for both blueberries and raspberries is going to the processing market and so a relatively small amount is going to the fresh market.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.