Raspberry Growers Set Record Part 2

Raspberry Growers Set Record Part 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. We told you yesterday about the record season raspberry growers in our state had this year, but the biggest surprise for us 'non-berry growers' may be that the lion-share of the crop comes from bushes in Whatcom County ...

HENRY BIERLINK ... "Right up on the Candian border. If you take our little region, an area of about 20 miles in radius around the city of Lynden, which includes a little bit of the Frasier Valley in B.C., that little circle will compete with Chile and Eastern Europe as the dominant berry-growing regions of the world."

Henry Bierlink is the Executive Director of the Washington Red Raspberry Commission and he says everything has come together making the region perfect for raspberry production ...

HENRY BIERLINK ... "So this region here near the ocean, the temperate climate, the not harsh winters, and the great soils. I always say there's really three areas; soils, climate and culture. We developed a culture here too where there's generations of people who've been growing these berries. And the infrastructure; the plants to process them, the agronomy areas that really know what they're doing in terms of helping us grow them. All that comes together to make a successful industry."

78 of the commission's 96 Red Raspberry growers are in Whatcom County.

Washington leads the nation in producing red raspberries for processing. California provides almost all of the berries for the fresh market.

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