The federal government has authorized a $9.4 million purchase of Maine’s frozen wild blueberries.

This will be the fifth time since 2012 that the federal government will subsidize wild blueberry growers in Maine with the feds taking a total of 8.9 million pounds of frozen berries.

According to pressherlad.com the surplus fruit go to food banks, children centers and social service agencies. Maine has five processors, and there is a chance that all of them will sell berries to the government.

This year’s bonus buy comes just a few weeks shy of last year’s announcement that USDA was purchasing $10 million of surplus fruit.

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