ISHS Acta Horticulturae 810: IX International Vaccinium Symposium
CURRENT TRENDS OF BLUEBERRY CULTURE IN JAPAN |
| Author: | Takato Tamada |
| Keywords: | production trends, cultural techniques |
| Abstract:
In Japan, blueberry culture, fruit production and consumption have increased rapidly over the last 10 years. It is estimated that the blueberry growing area will increase to about 800 ha and about 2,000 t of fruit will be produced in 2007. An additional 13,000 t of fresh and frozen blueberry fruit, including lowbush blueberry, were imported from foreign countries to meet the demands of Japanese consumers who are eating blueberries for the nutraceutical benefits. The expansion of blueberry production and consumption in Japan can be attributed to several major factors. First, the introduction and planting of American northern and southern highbush and rabbiteye cultivars that have large fruit size, better taste and longer keeping quality. In recent years, the Japanese northern highbush cultivars ‘Ootsubu-boshi’ (Ootsubu means larger size and boshi means the star in English) and ‘Amatsubu-boshi’ (Amatsubu means sweeter) and the Japanese rabbiteye cultivar ‘Fuku-berry’ (Fuku means the welfare of man) have been favored by the Japanese grower. Secondly, there has been improvement on cultural techniques adapted to unique soil and climate conditions in Japan. The typical Japanese brown forest soil and red and yellow soils are poorly drained and lack good air permeability. This soil condition problem has been solved through soil amendments in the planting hole, use of raised beds, mulching with chaff and/or wood chips and grafting onto more tolerant rootstocks (usually the scion of highbush is grafted onto the rootstock of rabbiteye). To overcome adverse climate conditions, such as problems by the rainy season coinciding with the ripening period of highbush blueberry, heating culture has been employed to force blueberries into producing mature fruit before the rainy season begins. Rain-protected culture has also been utilized successfully. Finally, increased fruit consumption has occurred due to superior blueberry fruit functionality, thus creating demand for increased blueberry growing area and production. Most Japanese consumers prefer fresh, large and sweet blueberry fruit and ask for more integrated pest management in blueberry growing. Therefore, pick-your-own blueberry farm operations have expanded into densely populated urban regions and organic culture of blueberries is gradually becoming more popular. In the future, “freshness, large size, good taste”, “safety”, “natural”, “healing” and “healthy” will be important key words associated with blueberry production in Japan. | |
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