Highbush Blueberries

Now look at this pie chart that shows highbush and lowbush production in North America.

Georgia Now Top Highbush Blueberry Producing State!

Here is the latest  information on state production!   Will Georgia now change their license plates to include a blueberries?   Stay tuned, looks like Michigan has recaptured the lead!

USHBC Trade Shows in the New Year

USHBC will be busy spreading the highbush Blueberry message in the new year.
Check out our schedule at:
http://www.blueberrytech.org/admin/calendar.htm

Here is what is happening the first part of 2015.   Will have a lot of US events too!
February 8-12, 2015 - Gulfoods, Dubai.
February 21-23, 2015 - American Frozen Food Institute, Anaheim
March 3-6, 2015 - Foodex Japan, Makuhari, Japan
April 14, 2015 - New York Regional Institute of Food Technologists Expo, Somerset, NJ
May 6-8, 2015 - SIAL China, Shanghai
May 12-15, Food and Hotel Korea, Ilsan, South Korea
June 9-11, SIAL Brazil, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

New Blueberry Products Abroad

For decades, the USA has been the center of blueberry product development.   Well -- check out this chart from Mintel.   More blueberry containing products are launched outside of the USA compared to North America (USA and Canada for this comparison).
Very rapid growth in places like India and China!

Year End New Product Totals

And here it is!   USHBC subscribes to a service called Mintel.   This company sends shoppers all over the world to look for new products.    I remember the days when we used to trudge around stores and freeze in the frozen food section!   Now we get a real time readout and here is what North America looks like.  Not bad two years in a row and steady.   Yes, there were a lot of products in the prior years, but this all shows that blueberries are not a fad!  The Excitement continues!

Come see us at AFFI!

The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI)  is the big event for us processed blueberry folks!   USHBC will again host a table top exhibit at the event.  We want to meet with the industry especially blueberry packers and sellers who will be at the event.  
Runs February 21-23 in Anaheim, California.   We will have a table in the hub of the convention.   Send me a note at: tpayne@blueberrytech.org
Maybe we will see a rerun of the ever-popular blueberry champagne!
http://afficon.affi.org/