Where Costco Sources Its Blueberries

While some head to Costco when they need to stock up for a party or event, plenty of people do their everyday grocery shopping at the warehouse chain, and they save plenty of money over the course of their annual membership while doing so. Parents of small children in particular can stock up on all different types of berries — it's a well-known joke that some toddlers live off of berries, and nothing else, for a time — including big family packs of fresh, juicy blueberries. If you were wondering where the major retailer sources its blueberries, the answer might surprise you; they come from a variety of countries, including the three in North America, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as well as parts of South America, like Chile, Peru, Argentina, or Uruguay.

In fact, if you live on the West Coast of the US of A, like Oregon, Arizona, and even Hawaii, some of the blueberries on your Costco shelves might be sourced from sunny California, where the harvesting season starts in April and typically runs through June. The blueberries are grown there by a company called GoodFarms, which also supplies Costco with craft and organic strawberries, and which operates an Equitable Food Initiative-certified farm in Watsonville, California (far from the Blueberry Capital of the World, a.k.a. Hammonton, New Jersey, but that's okay).

As mentioned above, some of the blueberries sold at Costco come from south of the American border. Surprised? Mexico, as well as countries in South America, have been killing it as far as blueberry production is concerned, ever since the crop was first introduced to the area in the late 1970s. So it should come as no big shock that Driscoll's, one of the brands Costco sells, sources its blueberries from Mexico, namely the Baja and Central (including Jalisco and Michoacán) regions. Driscoll's clearly had a vision when it chose Mexico, with its ideal growing climate, which fills in the berry market during the time of year when American blueberries are no longer being harvested.

Costco customers may also find Sun Belle blueberries in its coolers, which are often a product of Peru. Sun Belle has partnered with the Cerro Prieto blueberry producer in that country, which farms the fruit mainly in the Chiclayo province, nearly 500 miles north of Lima. Peru's efforts in growing have actually seen it emerge as the world's third-largest producer of blueberries (after China and the U.S.) and the world's top exporter of the fruit, too. Not bad for an industry that just got its start in 2010, and it has certainly been good for Costco customers, who are loving the large, flavorful berries that hail from Peru (it's easy to choose the tastiest blueberries from Costco — just look for the bluest blue).