‘Whopper’: world’s heaviest blueberry balloons on NSW coast

A northern NSW farm has claimed a Guinness World Record for producing the world’s heaviest blueberry – check out the pictures and find out how this massive superfood came to tip the scales

Catherine Piltz

3 min read

March 19, 2024 - 6:30PM

Kids News

It’s a whopper: the Guinness World Record blueberry from Corindi, weighing in at a whopping 20.40g and measuring 39.31 millimetres, it outgrew the previous world record of a 16.20g berry grown in Western Australia in 2020.

READING LEVEL: GREEN

A NSW farm has hit the record books after producing the world’s heaviest blueberry.

The unusually large fruit was picked on November 13, 2023 at Costa Group’s berry farm at Corindi on the northern end of the Coffs Coast.

Weighing in at a whopping 20.40 grams and measuring 39.31 millimetres, the blueberry was grown by senior horticulturalist* Brad Hocking, with Jessica Scalzo and Marie-France Courtois.

The previous world record was for a 16.2g berry grown in Western Australia in 2020.

Mr Hocking said the “eterna” berry variety was known for its large size, crisp texture and long shelf life*.

The scales don’t lie: Guinness World Record have handed the title to the whopper blueberry from Corindi, NSW. Picture: supplied

“Eterna as a variety has a really great flavour and consistently large fruit,” Mr Hocking said.

“When we picked this one, there were probably around 20 other berries of a similar size.”

The team was excited to be recognised with the world record and said flavour remained the top priority.

“This really is a delightful piece of fruit,” Mr Hocking said.

“While the fruit is large, there’s absolutely no compromise* on quality or flavour as would be expected when developing a premium* variety blueberry.”

The eterna variety is part of Costa Group’s Variety Improvement Program (VIP) which licenses Costa-bred blueberry varieties in the Americas, Morocco, China, and Africa, among other regions.

The program is headquartered at Corindi, about 30 minutes north of the famous Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, and has been operating for more than 25 years.

The area is already known as the home of another piece of big fruit, Coffs Harbour’s Big Banana, but the world record giant blueberry is real. Picture: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

It develops about one to two new varieties of blueberries of commercial* value each year.

Costa Berries international horticulture* manager George Jessett said there was a huge amount of confidence and excitement around new types of blueberries.

“We are always looking to develop new varieties that improve on the current benchmark* and meet evolving* customer requirements,” he said.

“We are also looking to breed varieties that are more adaptable to hotter climates, are more drought tolerant and with better resistance against pest and disease pressure.”

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GLOSSARY

horticulturalist: a person who grows flowers, fruit, and vegetables, especially as their job
shelf life: length of time that food can be kept before it becomes too old to be sold or used
compromise: giving up something of value
premium: of higher quality or greater value than others of its kind
commercial: the business of making, growing, buying and selling goods
horticulture: the art and science of growing plants
benchmark: to measure the quality of something by comparing it with something else of an accepted standard
evolving: developing by gradual changes

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QUICK QUIZ

What was the weight of the record-breaking blueberry?
What is the specific blueberry variety responsible for the giant size?
What was the weight of the previous record holder and where was that blueberry from?
When the blueberry was picked, how many others were of a similar size?
What is the nearby big fruit that is a popular tourist attraction?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Blueberry recipe

Create your own recipe using these unusually large blueberries to showcase the deliciousness of this fruit.

Write your recipe and the method of how to make your chosen dish below.

Recipe name:

Ingredients:

Method (steps):

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

2. Extension
What else can you think of that would weigh approximately 20g?

Create a paper ball of the record blueberry using scrunched up paper to replicate the size and weight of this blueberry.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Design and Technologies, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word. They are often found describing a noun. Start by looking at the words before the nouns.

Search for all the adjectives you can find in the article.

Did you find any repeat adjectives or are they all different?

Extension:
Pick three of your favourite adjectives from the text and put them in your own sentences to show other ways to use them.

Have you used any in your writing?