Wire Services
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried expressed disappointment Thursday that the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled blueberries are not being imported in large enough numbers to harm the domestic industry.
Fried said in a prepared statement the ruling shows “greater reforms” are needed, and she expects Florida’s congressional delegation to again propose a measure to “provide access to effective trade remedies for all seasonal producers.”
She added, “The data proves that Florida’s seasonal growers have suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in economic injury from foreign blueberry imports.”
A statement on the commission’s website said it was determined that fresh, chilled or frozen blueberries “are not being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article in the United States.”
Fried this month testified before the commission that Mexico’s market share of blueberries was up 2,100% since 2009, while blueberries grown in Florida were down 38% since 2015. Fried testified with U.S. Rep. John Rutherford and representatives of Florida blueberry growers and associations, along with growers from Georgia and Michigan.
In her comments to the commission, Fried also argued that the U.S. market has seen a surge in blueberry imports from Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Canada, with Florida’s blueberry industry seeing its market share drop 5.38% since 2015.
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Republished with permission from the News Service of Florida.
