In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by blueberry producer and innovative farmer Sam Gray, and Laina Gray, U.S. operations manager for FineField. Sam is the farm manager for his family’s business, PineBloom Farms, in Albany, Georgia. He created a process for using FineField’s Harvy 500 and the Burro automated cart to improve blueberry harvest efficiencies. Laina has firsthand experience with the Harvy 500, FineField’s solar-powered robotic autonomous harvester. Together, they share insights on this collaboration and the benefits it offers blueberry producers when it comes to future automated processes.

“So, I had no idea that we were going to use them both in tandem. It just seemed easier and maybe less wear and tear on everybody kind of involved in the operation. And then also the benefit … with the Harvy is as we're continually loading and unloading the fruit, it is probably not being in the heat off the bush for more than 10 to 15 minutes because it's going off the machine, it's getting palletized, and it's immediately being put in a refrigerated trailer. So, it just helps with getting that fruit to a temperature where if it does have bruising or if it does have defects, it will kind of slow the decay.” — Sam Gray

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Sam and Laina, and their work in the blueberry industry.
• The motivations and the process Sam used for incorporating automation into his operation.
• The benefits and challenges of using two unique automated technologies during harvest.

Watch this video to see the automated machines working in tandem.

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on November 15, 2024.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by USHBC Compliance Coordinator Crystal Wills. In her role as compliance coordinator, Wills ensures the timely and fair collection of all assessments from imported and domestic blueberry production. USHBC assessment forms are due Nov. 30, and Wills walks listeners through the process of completing the forms, shares available resources to help with questions and explains the penalties levied if the deadline is not met.

“The law requires that the grower or importer of record, if you have over 2,000 pounds of berries, you're going to pay nine-tenths of a penny per pound or 18 per ton, and that's going to be on fresh and frozen berries. This is going to come into the USHBC, and that's going to be for the purposes of research and promotion. So we're making sure that that's happening across the board.” – Crystal Wills

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Wills and her role with USHBC.
• An exploration of the process producers and handlers should use to submit the required forms and declare their production numbers.
• How the assessment is calculated, and what values need to be used and verified to calculate total production.
• How to avoid penalties for late submissions or incomplete payments.

Contact Wills directly with any questions at cwills@nabcblues.org

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on November 8, 2024.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by the Executive Director of the IR-4 Project, Jerry Baron, Ph.D., and NABC Director of Government Affairs Alyssa Houtby. The IR-4 Project was established in 1963 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and land-grant universities to ensure that specialty crop farmers have legal access to safe and effective crop protection products. Baron has been the IR-4 Project's executive director since September 2006. Alyssa Houtby works closely with the NABC’s Government Affairs Committee to identify and advance the industry's public policy goals through the council’s advocacy platform.

“The reason why the program exists is because the companies that register products … focus their research and development area on crops that give them a large and rapid return on investments, i.e. they go after corn, soybeans, cotton, so on and so forth. The specialty crops … don't have access to those products. And one of the things we do as a government organization is we go out there and develop the data to show what type of residues remain on the crop at harvest.” – Jerry Baron, Ph.D.

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Baron and Houtby and their work.
• An exploration of the purpose of the IR-4 Project, and why it’s important to blueberry producers for a number of reasons, including the expansion of global exportation opportunities.
• A discussion of the challenges faced by regulatory agencies in labeling inputs, and the work the IR-4 Project is doing to support specialty crop producers.

Learn more at ir4project.org

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on November 1, 2024.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by Steve Magami, Agrovision’s co-founder and executive chair. Agrovision is a leading vertically integrated global healthy snacking superfruit platform with operations in Perú, Mexico, Morocco, Chile, Romania, China, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Egypt and the United Kingdom. You can hear Magami’s previous appearances on the show in episodes 115 and 166.

“We're seeing the opportunity to continue to develop cutting-edge software technology to deliver this consistent, high-quality experience year-round. We're working hard on the times of the year when our volumes of that better berry are not as strong as the strongest times of year, really to get it to a consistent level of volume.” – Steve Magami

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Magami and his work at Agrovision.
• An exploration of Agrovision’s strategy and global efforts to create a year-round supply of blueberries.
• The potential to grow the appeal of various blueberry snacks with consumers.

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on October 24, 2024.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC) is joined by Kevin Hamilton, USHBC’s vice president of communications and marketing, and Haiying Zhang, USHBC’s director of global business development. Zhang previously represented growers and stakeholders in the U.S. pistachio industry. As senior director of global marketing, she was responsible for executing marketing programs and budgeting in export markets, supervising public relations firms and overseeing USDA grant programs.

“If you look at what is global business development, it really is a process of identifying and pursuing opportunities, with the goal to expand the operations or your reach in new international markets. And so at USHBC, my role is really … to expand the global trade for blueberries by increasing consumption in international markets.” – Haiying Zhang

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Zhang and her role with USHBC.
• Details on the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) funding USHBC has been awarded to support next year’s market expansion.
• The opportunities USHBC representatives discovered at this year’s Asia Fruit Logistica conference.
• How to connect with Zhang (hzhang@blueberry.org) to get involved in the global market expansion for blueberries

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Andres Armstrong in Chile and Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on October 17, 2024.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by April Stull, Ph.D. RDN, associate professor of nutrition sciences in the Department of Human Sciences and Design at Baylor University, and Leslie Wada, Ph.D., senior director of nutrition and health research at USHBC. Stull's work has furthered the reputation of and appreciation for the health benefits of blueberries, and USHBC’s health research program. Stull also authored a paper outlining the health benefits of blueberries, and she and Wada discuss the findings and impact this research can have.

“I'm particularly excited about investigating the health benefits of blueberries across different populations and their role in meeting nutritional needs throughout the lifecycle. So this includes studying their impact on children, older adults, underserved populations and individuals from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.” – April Stull, Ph.D., RDN

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Stull and her work.
• A discussion of her recently published research paper which highlights the impact of blueberries on overall health outcomes.
• An exploration of proposed future research projects that would continue to investigate the many health benefits of blueberries.

For more information, see additional research by Dr. Stull on blueberries and endothelial function and blueberries and insulin sensitivity.

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on October 3, 2024.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” you’ll hear a live recording of U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and North American Blueberry Council (NABC) President Kasey Cronquist’s keynote address to the blueberry industry, which was recorded live at the 2024 Blueberry Summit in Denver. He was joined by Brad Moorer, CEO of MBG Marketing, blueberry grower Michael Hill and USHBC Chair Shelly Hartmann. Cronquist and his guests discuss the value of continued investment in the USHBC and the industry’s potential expansion.

“You have the USHBC … where you can collectively bring everybody together to pull the biggest lever that you have to bring consumers back to the category or to the category for the first time in such a way that helps lift demand. And that helps everybody. And that's why USHBC got started in the first place: There was vision in what was going to need to happen in order to handle the circumstances. And, today, we're in different circumstances. We're at a crossroad.” – Kasey Cronquist

Topics covered include:

• The need for an increased assessment for the blueberry industry.
• The industry’s perspective on what it will take to continue to expand blueberry demand globally, and the best strategy to accomplish this task.
• A grower's perspective on the proposed increased assessment, and the need this investment meets for producers in the industry.
• The goals of the USHBC, what an increased assessment will provide for the organization, and how an increased assessment will help USHBC better support blueberry producers.

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” host Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by Dr. Frank Wong, director of stakeholder relations at Bayer, and Alyssa Houtby, NABC director of government affairs. Before joining Bayer, Wong was an associate specialist in cooperative extension and a plant pathologist at the University of California, Riverside. He has also served as the American Phytopathological Society's subject matter expert for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), providing information on plant diseases and disease management. Wong and Houtby discuss upcoming changes to EPA policies regarding pesticide and herbicide use.

“It's the public's problem. It is the grower's problem. It is the pesticide manufacturer's problem. And it is EPA’s problem. If we don't figure out a way to solve this, that means that essentially the majority of pesticides … registrations could be vacated … . And for sure a lot of the efforts that I think blueberry growers should be doing right now is just being aware that all this is happening, and there are opportunities right now for their input to change the policy.” – Dr. Frank Wong

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to Wong and Houtby and their work.
• A discussion of the changes to EPA policies regarding pesticide and herbicide use that could impact blueberry producers.
• Where to learn more about the Endangered Species Act (WSSA.net) and how to view a story map that covers the evolution of the ESA and its intersection and interaction with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from TJ Hafner in Oregon, Luis Vegas in Peru, and Mario Ramirez in Mexico. This was recorded on September 19, 2024.