Blueberries are better late than never.

Austin Doong, with Doremi Blueberry Farm in Pitt Meadows, said the season got started a bit later than expected for his mid-season crops, but he expects the recent sunny weather will make the berries ripen sooner.

Overall, the crop in B.C. is expected to surpass last yearB次元官网网址檚 total.

For Doong, this is his first year of harvesting the 12 acres of blueberry bushes on his farm.

He had little trouble finding workers. He has around eight regular pickers at his farm, plus around 10 students hired through the Canada Summer Job Program.

When he advertised online for help, he had a few hundred applications.

B次元官网网址淔or pickers, itB次元官网网址檚 just you put it on there and people just swarm,B次元官网网址� said Doong.

B次元官网网址淭hen student-wise, there are another few hundred, so itB次元官网网址檚 not too bad to find people,B次元官网网址� he continued, adding that maybe he had so much interest because they are paying pickers a little bit higher than at other farms.

B次元官网网址淎pparently our pruning did not go well, so [the berries are] a little bit harder to pick, so we put the money a little bit higher,B次元官网网址� Doong added.

He has reserved around two to three acres of his fields for B次元官网网址榰-pickB次元官网网址� and around another two to three acres that his own workers pick and sell fresh. The other eight acres are intermittently cleared by pickers supplied by a packing house.

B次元官网网址淎s a grower, the packing houses have their own processing plants, so they help us out by sending in a few hundred people to pick and clean our fields,B次元官网网址� said Doong.

B次元官网网址淭hen they bring it back and record how much weight has come out of our field and itB次元官网网址檚 just like if I sold it to them myself,B次元官网网址� he said.

Navdeep Middar, sales and operations manager at Twinberry NRK Sahota Blueberry Farms, also in Pitt Meadows, said her workers started picking at the end of June, about a week earlier than last year.

She said that although they are having a bit of a struggle with the hot weather, the crop is good.

B次元官网网址淚f itB次元官网网址檚 too hot, the berry over-ripens or softens, so there are more berries on the trees. Which is not a bad thing if you can pick it. But then the rain comes and then that slows down the peopleB次元官网网址檚 picking,B次元官网网址� said Middar

B次元官网网址淭he season is more of a bumper crop than last year for sure,B次元官网网址� she added.

NRK Sahota Blueberry Farms has been in Pitt Meadows for 33 years with 168 acres of mostly blueberries and a small amount of raspberries.

She sells five variety of berries, the most common being B次元官网网址楧uke,B次元官网网址� the sweetest of the early season crop, B次元官网网址楤luecropB次元官网网址� in the mid-season and B次元官网网址楨lliott,B次元官网网址� the late-season crop that the farm grows more to export than for local markets because the berries are more tart.

Middar said that every year the farm struggles with finding workers and usually hires contractors to harvest the fields.

Across the province, the season is looking better than last year.

But Anju Gill, executive director of the Blueberry Council of B.C., wonB次元官网网址檛 know for certain until about October, when the numbers are finalized.

B次元官网网址淟ast year, the crop size was down about 30 million pounds,B次元官网网址� said Gill.

The total for the year was about the 135 million pounds.

The biggest year for the industry was in 2016, with a crop total of 170 million pounds.

B次元官网网址淥ur numbers are based on levies received. That doesnB次元官网网址檛 meant there isnB次元官网网址檛 more crop out there,B次元官网网址� explained Gill.

B次元官网网址淟etB次元官网网址檚 say youB次元官网网址檙e doing u-pick and other ways of selling your berries, weB次元官网网址檙e not going to know about that,B次元官网网址� she explained.

B次元官网网址淚t looks better this year than last year for sure,B次元官网网址� Gill added.

B次元官网网址淒efinitely not the 2016 season.B次元官网网址�