Blueberries are better late than never.

Austin Doong, with Doremi Blueberry Farm in Pitt Meadows, said the season got started a bit later than expected for his mid-season crops, but he expects the recent sunny weather will make the berries ripen sooner.

Overall, the crop in B.C. is expected to surpass last year乌鸦传媒檚 total.

For Doong, this is his first year of harvesting the 12 acres of blueberry bushes on his farm.

He had little trouble finding workers. He has around eight regular pickers at his farm, plus around 10 students hired through the Canada Summer Job Program.

When he advertised online for help, he had a few hundred applications.

乌鸦传媒淔or pickers, it乌鸦传媒檚 just you put it on there and people just swarm,乌鸦传媒� said Doong.

乌鸦传媒淭hen student-wise, there are another few hundred, so it乌鸦传媒檚 not too bad to find people,乌鸦传媒� he continued, adding that maybe he had so much interest because they are paying pickers a little bit higher than at other farms.

乌鸦传媒淎pparently our pruning did not go well, so [the berries are] a little bit harder to pick, so we put the money a little bit higher,乌鸦传媒� Doong added.

He has reserved around two to three acres of his fields for 乌鸦传媒榰-pick乌鸦传媒� and around another two to three acres that his own workers pick and sell fresh. The other eight acres are intermittently cleared by pickers supplied by a packing house.

乌鸦传媒淎s a grower, the packing houses have their own processing plants, so they help us out by sending in a few hundred people to pick and clean our fields,乌鸦传媒� said Doong.

乌鸦传媒淭hen they bring it back and record how much weight has come out of our field and it乌鸦传媒檚 just like if I sold it to them myself,乌鸦传媒� he said.

Navdeep Middar, sales and operations manager at Twinberry NRK Sahota Blueberry Farms, also in Pitt Meadows, said her workers started picking at the end of June, about a week earlier than last year.

She said that although they are having a bit of a struggle with the hot weather, the crop is good.

乌鸦传媒淚f it乌鸦传媒檚 too hot, the berry over-ripens or softens, so there are more berries on the trees. Which is not a bad thing if you can pick it. But then the rain comes and then that slows down the people乌鸦传媒檚 picking,乌鸦传媒� said Middar

乌鸦传媒淭he season is more of a bumper crop than last year for sure,乌鸦传媒� she added.

NRK Sahota Blueberry Farms has been in Pitt Meadows for 33 years with 168 acres of mostly blueberries and a small amount of raspberries.

She sells five variety of berries, the most common being 乌鸦传媒楧uke,乌鸦传媒� the sweetest of the early season crop, 乌鸦传媒楤luecrop乌鸦传媒� in the mid-season and 乌鸦传媒楨lliott,乌鸦传媒� the late-season crop that the farm grows more to export than for local markets because the berries are more tart.

Middar said that every year the farm struggles with finding workers and usually hires contractors to harvest the fields.

Across the province, the season is looking better than last year.

But Anju Gill, executive director of the Blueberry Council of B.C., won乌鸦传媒檛 know for certain until about October, when the numbers are finalized.

乌鸦传媒淟ast year, the crop size was down about 30 million pounds,乌鸦传媒� said Gill.

The total for the year was about the 135 million pounds.

The biggest year for the industry was in 2016, with a crop total of 170 million pounds.

乌鸦传媒淥ur numbers are based on levies received. That doesn乌鸦传媒檛 meant there isn乌鸦传媒檛 more crop out there,乌鸦传媒� explained Gill.

乌鸦传媒淟et乌鸦传媒檚 say you乌鸦传媒檙e doing u-pick and other ways of selling your berries, we乌鸦传媒檙e not going to know about that,乌鸦传媒� she explained.

乌鸦传媒淚t looks better this year than last year for sure,乌鸦传媒� Gill added.

乌鸦传媒淒efinitely not the 2016 season.乌鸦传媒�