Difficult Situation of Canadian Raspberry

Canadian market for raspberries dwindles and some farmers fear about the future of their industry. For years, Canada has played important role in the international raspberry market but 2006 was a very bad year for the raspberry market and, so far, 2007 doesn't look encouraging. Farmers from Chile and Serbia produce more fruits and much cheaper than Canadian farmers do and finally the consumer decides to buy the cheapest product. Serbia is now producing around 160 million pounds of raspberries a year whereas Canada produces between 20 million to 24 million pounds a year. But the problem for the raspberry industry is not only the strong foreign competition. Smaller Canadian raspberry production results in prices increase what makes the demand is flat and the consumption is not increasing, which is the opposite situation in the blueberry industry where the supply is greater and prices are higher.