How China Swiped the Secret to American Blueberries

Ryan Knutson (0:05)

Our colleague Jon Emont is based in Singapore, where he writes about business and geopolitics. And recently, he's become somewhat of a blueberry expert.

What do you think makes a good blueberry?

Jon Emont (0:18)

That's a great question.

There are four things that you're looking for in a blueberry, okay? So there's taste, of course. You want a nice balance between sweetness and acidity, and then there's size. Ideally, you want a large plump blueberry. Crispness, you want a crisp blueberry.

Ryan Knutson (0:37)

A little crunch.

Jon Emont (0:37)

And then here's the fourth one, something called a bloom, B-L-O-O-M. You might notice in blueberries, sometimes there's this sort of whitish powder. You could even sometimes confuse it for a mold, but it's not.

It's a sign of freshness.

Ryan Knutson (0:51)

Uh-huh.

The reason Jon knows so much about blueberries, is that he recently went down a reporting rabbit hole. The story had to do with Driscoll's, the American berry giant.

Jon Emont (1:04)

So I go to the grocery store, and I've started noticing that Driscoll's was selling all these berries in Singapore grocery stores that were grown in Yunnan, in southwest China. And I'm quite familiar with China. I did not remember there being lots of blueberries grown in Yunnan. And so I was just sort of intrigued, and they were making their way all the way to Singapore. What is going on here?

Ryan Knutson (1:29)

What was going on was that Driscoll's placed a huge bet on China, and it worked so well that it ended up backfiring. Because now, many of the blueberries being grown and sold in China aren't even Driscoll's, they're copycats.

And the copycats are taking over.

Jon Emont (1:53)

China was hardly producing any blueberries 15 years ago, and by 2021, it overtook the US as the top, world's top blueberry producer.

Ryan Knutson (2:02)

So China has become a blueberry juggernaut?

Jon Emont (2:07)

Yes. A blueberry superpower overnight. That's right.

Ryan Knutson (2:10)

A blueberry superpower. It's sort of funny, but it's not funny if you're Driscoll's.

Jon Emont (2:17)

No, no, this is deadly serious.

Ryan Knutson (2:23)

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Tuesday, September 29th.

Coming up on the show, a very serious episode about how Chinese companies elbowed their way to blueberry supremacy.

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Ryan Knutson (4:26)

For most of its history, China had been a land of no blueberries.

And in the 2010s, Driscoll's decided it wanted to change that. When did China get on the radar and what were they thinking?

Jon Emont (4:39)

Yeah. So about 15 years ago, they were looking to expand further and they were looking at places to grow. And China just quickly came to the top of the list.

Ryan Knutson (4:47)

Japanese fruit makers were already in China growing strawberries. And after deciding that raspberries and blackberries were too foreign for the Chinese palate, Driscoll's decided that the Chinese market was ripe for blueberries.

Jon Emont (5:00)

They saw something really smart, which was that there were all these macro trends converging in China. I mean, from just lightening economic growth to people wanting to eat healthier foods. They thought they had a narrow window of time to get in fast, to start growing before others came.