Raspberries

WHAT ARE RASPBERRIES?

Raspberries are a perennial bush-type plant that produces fruit on woody stems or canes. The fruit may be red, yellow, black or purple, but only the red raspberry is important in BC and world-wide it is the most popular form.

Raspberries are an aggregate fruit. Each raspberry is a fruit cluster with many bead-like fruits called druplets clustered around a core or receptacle. Each druplet contains one seed and a well developed berry generally has 100 to 120 seeds. When the berry is picked the receptacle remains on the bush and the berry resembles a hollow cone.

WHERE ARE RASPBERRIES PRODUCED IN BC?

The crop can be grown in all but the very harshest parts of the province, but over 98% of the raspberries are produced near Abbotsford in the Central Fraser Valley. Minor centres of production are the Salmon Arm/North Okanagan area and southeastern Vancouver Island.

Raspberries are a temperate season crop that do not do well under very cold winters or hot summers. The plants are very susceptible to root rots, and thus, are usually grown on sandy, well drained soils.

HOW MANY RASPBERRIES DO WE PRODUCE?

BC's raspberry production varies depending on winter injury, growing conditions and acreage planted. In the last few years production as been as high as 20 million kg and as low as 11 million kg. This quantity of fruit would equate to about 650 to 1100 semi-trailer truckloads of fruit.

HOW ARE RASPBERRIES PRODUCED?

There are two types of red raspberries -- summer fruiting, the most common, and autumn fruiting or primocane fruiting, which are used for extending the fresh marketing season. The summer fruiting raspberries do not produce fruit in the first year. This is because the fruit is produced on side branches or laterals on one-year old canes. After fruiting the cane dies to the soil level.

Raspberries are planted in rows about 3 metres apart and they form solid hedges. The canes produce so heavily that they must be supported and held in an upright position by a trellis system of posts and wires. The flowers appear from late May to early July. They must be pollinated by bumble bees and other wild bees. If there are insufficient wild pollinators, hives of honey bees are rented and moved into the fields to ensure good pollination. Repeated bee visits produce more and larger berries. About 60% of BC's raspberries are harvested mechanically over a six-to-eight week period from late June to mid-August. All fresh market berries and the remainder of the processed berries are hand picked.

After harvest or during winter, the canes that produced the fruit are cut off at the soil and the new replacement canes that grew from the roots are tied to the wires and topped in preparation for the next growing season.

The primocane type of raspberry is one that will also produce fruit on the tips of the new canes (primocanes) each summer. Recent development of improved varieties has resulted in primocane varieties that will start producing fruit during August and continue until fall rains or frost curtails production. This may be as late as late October in some years.

WHAT DOES A RASPBERRY LOOK LIKE WHEN I USE IT?

Approximately 90% of the raspberries grown are processed and consumed as jam, juice, yogurt flavouring, whole frozen berries, etc., and about 10% are eaten fresh.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE RASPBERRIES LEAVE THE FARM?

The bulk of the berries are delivered to one of a dozen different processing facilities located in the Central Fraser Valley. Here the fruit is vacuumed and washed prior to being passed down an inspection belt, packaged and frozen. BC berries are shipped to Eastern Canada or to buyers across the United States for manufacturing into jam, yogurt flavouring or other products. Fresh market fruit, after cooling, is repackaged and inspected prior to being shipped in refrigerated trucks or in air cargo containers to major markets across Canada and the U.S. Depending on currency exchange rates plus international supply and price factors, some fresh and/or processed raspberries are sold to overseas markets.

WHAT CHALLENGES DOES THE RASPBERRY PRODUCER FACE?

Winter injury, root rots and the availability of suitable soil are all major factors limiting local production. Growers have faced this challenge by gradually concentrating production in the sandy, well drained soils in the Central Fraser Valley. The availability of thousands of people for hand picking the crop was a major constraint in the past, but by the late 1980s the problem was largely solved by the development and refinement of several makes of mechanical harvesting machines.

WHO'S INVOLVED IN PRODUCING RASPBERRIES?

• Raspberry producer
• Field workers
• Pickers
• Processing plant workers
• Truckers
• Marketers
• Farm machinery suppliers
• Fertilizer and pesticide suppliers
• Sugar and packaging materials manufacturers

Interesting Fact About Raspberries:

Although raspberries can be grown in all of the Canadian provinces, BC accounts for almost the entire annual Canadian production of raspberries.

Contacts and other resources:

 

BCMAL - Berry Information

BC Raspberry Growers' Association

Raspberry Industry Development Council

Washington Red Raspberry Commission