Although the first blueberry cultivars arrived
in New Zealand in the 1950s, commercial
blueberry cultivation commenced in
the mid-1970s with the introduction and
field trialing of cultivars imported from the
United States (Anonymous, 1973, 1975, 1979;
Langford, 1982). Blueberry plantings have
more than doubled from 2000 to 2009 with
the total planted area increasing from 259 ha
in 2000 to 522 ha in 2009