Blueberry growers and importers deliver a powerhouse crop that contributes nearly $9.1 billion in annual economic impact to the U.S. economy, or nearly $25 million every day. The industry, supported by both domestic growers and international import partners, also creates and sustains 61,676 full-time equivalent jobs each year, and generates $3.3 billion in labor income.
You can read the complete findings of the USHBC’s latest economic impact study, including national-, state- and country-level data, in the reports below.
Commissioned by the USHBC, the study was conducted in April 2025 by Dennis Tootelian, Ph.D., emeritus professor of marketing and former director of the Center for Small Business in the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento. The analysis is based on U.S. highbush blueberry acres in production and in development, as well as spending by companies that are importing blueberries. Projections are based on annual average expenditures, which means that this impact is expected to occur each year that such spending occurs. National acreage statistics were secured from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
