See text Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries.

[3] Fruit productivity of lowbush blueberries varies by the degree of pollination, genetics of the clone, soil fertility, water availability, insect infestation, plant diseases, and local growing conditions.

[4] Cultivated highbush blueberries prefer sandy or loam soils, having shallow root systems that benefit from mulch and fertilizer.

The fruit is a berry 5–16 mm (3⁄16–5⁄8 in) in diameter with a flared crown at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally uniformly blue when ripe.

Other sections in the genus are native to other parts of the world, including the Pacific Northwest and the southern United States,[6] South America, Europe and Asia.

Other wild shrubs in many of these regions produce similar-looking edible berries, such as huckleberries and whortleberries (North America) and bilberries (Europe).

[10] Several other wild shrubs of the genus Vaccinium also produce commonly eaten blue berries, such as the predominantly European V. myrtillus and other bilberries, which in many languages have a name that translates to "blueberry" in English.

V. angustifolium (lowbush blueberry) is found from the Atlantic provinces westward to Quebec and southward to Michigan and West Virginia.

This program began when Frederick Vernon Coville of the USDA-ARS collaborated with Elizabeth Coleman White of New Jersey.

[13] In the early part of the 20th century, White offered pineland residents cash for wild blueberry plants with unusually large fruit.

[15] In 1911, he began a program of research in conjunction with White, daughter of the owner of the extensive cranberry bogs at Whitesbog in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

His work doubled the size of some strains' fruit, and by 1916, he had succeeded in cultivating blueberries, making them a valuable crop in the Northeastern United States.

[18][19] Significant production of highbush blueberries occurs in British Columbia, Maryland, Western Oregon, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Washington.

[22] In descending order of production volume for 2017, other major producers were Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, California, and North Carolina.

Some 44,000 hectares (110,000 acres) are farmed, but only half of this acreage is harvested each year due to variations in pruning practices.

[31] Atlantic Canada contributes approximately half of the total North American wild/lowbush annual production with New Brunswick having the largest in 2015, an amount expanding in 2016.

This wild blueberry commerce benefits from vertical integration of growing, processing, frozen storage, marketing, and transportation within relatively small regions of the province.

[2] V. corymbosum only began to be cultivated in Romania in a few years leading up to 2018 and rapidly increased in production and sales in that time (as with berries in general).

[37] In the Southern Hemisphere, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa,[38] and Zimbabwe grow blueberries commercially.

[39] In Brazil, blueberries are produced in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

[41] In the 21st century, the industry grew in Argentina: "Argentine blueberry production has increased over the last three years with planted area up to 400 percent," according to a 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

As of 2018[update] V. corymbosum remains relatively unmolested by pests and diseases in Romania, with Phytophthora cinnamomi, Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi, Botryosphaeria corticis, Godronia cassandrae, Phomopsis sp., Botrytis cinerea, Naohidemyces vaccinii, Microsphaera penicillata var.

[45] Insecticide modes of action must be varied to avoid encouraging resistance in the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii.

The pest predator Harpalus erraticus maintains greater abundance with selective insecticides rather than broad-spectrum MoAs.

Nonetheless, there are 24 insect taxa known to be pest (organism)s in North America, the worst in New Jersey, Michigan, Maine, and Eastern Canada being Rhagoletis mendax.

[8] Changes in locale and environment – to new geographies, and into greenhouses – have required new pest management regimes, including innovative IPM.

Conversely, importing foreign potential enemies into North America may yield good results: Operophtera brumata is a pest of blueberries and birches which is successfully parasitized by Cyzenis albicans despite the lack of historical, natural contact between the two.

[4] Blueberries are sold fresh or are processed as individually quick frozen fruit, purée, juice, or dried or infused berries.

These may then be used in a variety of consumer goods, such as jellies, jams, pies, muffins, snack foods, pancakes, or as an additive to breakfast cereals.

A 100-gram serving provides a relatively low amount of food energy – 240 kilojoules (57 kcal) – with a glycemic load of 6.