ELLSWORTH – Maine’s wild blueberries could find their way into new Asian markets if new promotional efforts by the industry are successful.

The Wild Blueberry Association of North America, a promotional organization funded jointly by growers and processors in Maine and Canada, expects to target new markets in countries such as China and South Korea, in a continuing effort to match demand with the rapidly growing supply of the fruit.

“We know we’re going to have to open up more countries to this product,” John Sauve, WBANA executive director, said recently.

Wild blueberries are grown commercially in Maine and eastern Canada. Although the combined harvest had increased gradually during the 1990s, it reached 191 million pounds, up significantly from the average of 120 million pounds just a few years ago. Sauve said processors can expect that number to continue to grow, despite a few down years due to drought conditions in Maine. He predicted that companies will have to find a demand for an additional 50 million pounds of wild blueberries within the next few years and will be dealing regularly with a crop of more than 200 million pounds.

“It’s safe to say we’re going to see that kind of growth take place,” he said. “We need to find a market for those berries.”

Traditionally, wild blueberries have been sold commercially as an ingredient in bakery mixes, and marketing efforts had focused mainly on the United States and Canada, and in Great Britain and Germany, key overseas markets for the berries.

WBANA locked onto the “health story,” Sauve said, after research in the late 1990s showed that blueberries had the highest level of antioxidants of 40 fruits and vegetables tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Antioxidants are believed to help prevent cancer and have anti-aging properties, including reversing loss of memory and helping to prevent loss of eyesight.

That health story helped to increase interest in wild blueberries in Japan, where sales increased eightfold in about three years.

WBANA had begun testing the Asian markets, Sauve said, and had begun some marketing efforts in South Korea.

“When the Japan market began to grow, we focused our resources there,” he said.

In recent years, WBANA has used the health benefits of blueberries to target the consumer market, which traditionally has been a very small part of the market. The new “Five a Day, the Color Way” plan encourages people to eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables and to get a wide variety of colors into their diet as they do that.

WBANA has produced a marketing campaign directed at individual consumers encouraging them to get their “daily dose of blue” as part of a healthful diet.

That same health message, he said, can help to broaden interest in new markets, and South Korea and China are both likely targets

“Everybody is looking to China, with all the people there,” Sauve said.

New marketing efforts, he said, likely will target larger cities where the income level is higher than in the countryside.

“We have to look at the income levels. People have to have the money to buy things,” he said. “That means looking at areas like Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. We have to identify areas where our product would sell.”

The process could be complicated by competition both in North America and in other areas. Growers of cultivated blueberries in the United States and Canada also have seen increased growth in recent years and also are seeking new markets for their berries.

In addition, there will be new competition from Chile, where growers are increasing production of cultivated berries, and even in China, where a fledgling cultivated industry is being created.