Global competition, a strong U.S. dollar and rising land values have prompted Townsend Farms, Inc. to put its 104-acre blueberry farm near Fargher Lake in Clark County up for sale.
Mike Townsend, president of the Oregon-based company, said the plan is to sell the land but still contract to buy its blueberry production, estimated at 1 million pounds a year.
Family owned Townsend Farms, based in Fairview, Ore., near Gresham, has owned and operated the blueberry farm for the past 17 years. The site was developed on what was once a shallow lake bed north of the unincorporated Fargher Lake community, five miles west of Yacolt. The area was drained in the early 1900s.
“We now have more immediate development needs,” Townsend said. “A sale will help us diversify our portfolio and work on different projects.”
Asking price for the property is $2.99 million, said Tony Glavin with Re/Max Real Estate in Vancouver, the company hired to market the property.
Glavin said that he has spoken to several interested buyers and shown the site to a few since the berry farm came up for sale this fall.
The blueberry farm is zoned for agricultural use and will continue in ag use, Glavin said. Its unique lake bottom soil and higher-water table would really prevent any other use, even if the zoning was changed, he said.
The property is getting good buyer interest, especially from Canadian-based clients, he said. He expects a sale within the next few months.
Meanwhile, Townsend Farms, established in 1906, faces several market challenges, including more international competition, especially from Mexico and Peru. Both countries are expanding blueberry production and have the advantage of lower labor costs, Townsend said. China is also adding blueberry production. Ag experts say that annual global blueberry crop could increase by another one-third in the next 10 years.
In addition, the strong U.S. dollar is making it attractive for American food chains to buy blueberries from Canadian producers rather than U.S.-based farmers, he said.
“In the next two to three years, the industry will face global challenges,” Townsend said.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the cold storage inventory of frozen blueberries in the U.S. reached 145 million pounds in 2016. That’s up from 51 million pounds just five years earlier.
Townsend Farms produces a variety of berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and others) on 2,000 acres in Washington and Oregon. It also owns a repackaging and storage facility in New Jersey.
According to industry newspaper, Capital Press, farm land values are continuing to increase in the Pacific Northwest despite weaker crop prices in the past two years.
Land values in Washington and Oregon are up nearly 5 percent from 2016, according to the newspaper.
That’s because investment groups that want to diversify their portfolios see farm land as a good option.
Washington and Oregon are the biggest blueberry producing states in the U.S. with Asia as its biggest export market.
