Source: NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 8/5/22

Is a cold storage facility worth the cost, as an aid to managing spotted-wing drosophila? Recent work by D. Adeline Yeh (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service), Bingyan Dai, and Miguel I. Gomez (Dyson school of Applied Economics and Managment, Cornell University) gives growers a way to answer that question.

This interactive tool provides information on investing in a cool storage unit to control post-harvest infestation from Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) for blueberry production in North Carolina. The economic outcomes presented in this tool are calculated based on a typical rabbiteye, or late season, blueberry farm in North Carolina. The analysis considers the price reduction of fresh blueberries due to the delay to market from storing in the cool storage.

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