By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

A USDA official says a deal has been struck allowing Oregon to ship fresh blueberries to South Korea beginning in 2012.

South Korea has been off-limits to fresh blueberries from the U.S.

Angela McMellen Brannigan, a trade director from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said South Korean food safety inspection officials ratified the agreement earlier this week.

Bryan Ostlund, administrator of the Oregon Blueberry Commission, said the agreement could be a market bonanza for Oregon growers.

“I’m as curious as anybody to see how ultimately this whole thing shakes out, but it is the most highly anticipated market expansion opportunity I’ve seen in my whole career,” Ostlund said.

“I would say it is a significant market opportunity for the Oregon blueberry industry,” said Eric Pond, chairman of the Oregon Blueberry Commission, who just returned from a trade mission to South Korea.

“The appetite for fresh blueberries is high in South Korea,” he said, “due to their focus on whole body health and functional food consumption.”

The industry had hoped to secure the arrangement for the 2011 shipping season, but South Korean officials balked at ratifying it.

“I know it was a great disappointment not to be able to ship this season,” Brannigan said in a letter to Oregon growers, “but I look forward to a productive 2012 shipping season.”

Oregon growers and packers interested in the South Korean market will need to meet certain phytosanitary standards before Korean officials will accept the fresh shipments, Ostlund said. The agreement will be limited only to qualifying packers and growers.

Ostlund said about 10 packers expressed interest in the market last year.

Under the agreement, Ostlund said Korean inspectors will travel to Oregon early next growing season to inspect packing houses to ensure interested packers meet the Korean standards.

Blueberry fields involved in the shipments also will need to meet food safety and phytosanitary standards, including certain trapping and monitoring protocols for pests and diseases.

The protocols will include trace-back ability to individual fields on each clamshell, Ostlund said.

South Korea currently accepts frozen blueberries from the U.S. and fresh blueberries from Chile and Canada.

The arrangement to take fresh blueberries from Oregon does not extend to other states.