Maine farmers crushed by a $28M blueberry disaster — and you’ll feel it at the grocery store soon. Here’s what happened

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Maine’s wild blueberry industry is facing one of its toughest years in decades after a perfect storm of drought, poor pollination and rising production costs wiped out an estimated $28 million in farmers’ income (1).

The state typically produces 99% of America’s wild blueberries on its own. But after one of the worst harvests in the last decade, growers warn that the industry’s future is increasingly uncertain.

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“We get what we get one time a year in terms of the fruit that we’re going to have available to sell for the next 12 months,” said Adam West of Wyman’s, one of the largest wild blueberry processors in North America.

In a normal year, Maine can harvest roughly 100 million pounds of wild blueberries. In 2025, production fell to just over half that amount, according to Business Insider. Farmers collectively lost millions as drought conditions shriveled berries in the fields and reduced overall yields.