What's happening in the blueberry FoodTech World

Friday, December 22, 2017

USHBC Delivers the Next Big Thing


Food manufacturers start the day reading the "trades."  These are the magazines like Food Technology, Food Processing and others.  They want to see what is new.  Especially want to see what the competition is doing.  They look for new ideas, new products and "The Next Big Thing!"

USHBC continues to publish articles in these magazines.  We weave the blueberry messages into scheduled editions like Nutraceuticals, Superfoods and Ancient Grains.  Editors call us because we deliver interesting and factual content that their readers look for!

This year -- the big message is Real Blueberries!

Take a look.  The value of the publicity generated this year exceeded $230,000!

Here are a few examples from 2017!


















Monday, December 18, 2017

A Beautiful Promotion in Taiwan


Beauty Sells in Taiwan!  The market of 22 million was the first country outside of Japan for NABC and USHBC promotions.  Our first promotion in 2000 was called the "Blue Gem"

This ad was placed in the Women's and fashion magazines.   The subtle association of beautiful blueberries was a natural as for centuries, fruits of all kinds including blueberries have been associated with traditional Chinese medicine and skin care.


Blueberry shipments -- especially fresh -- rose to more than a million lbs in 2012!  For a small country this is very-very good!   

What goes up -- must go down, and last few years the fresh sales have lagged.  At the same time, processed blueberry sales including frozen and dried have risen -- thanks to the work of USHBC-FoodTech.   

Our Mandy Chen in Taipei (Blueberry Mandy) received a call from Wellcome Supermarket -- the leading chain in the region.   They wanted help to promote fresh California and Oregon Blueberries.    In five days, Mandy organized promotions at 17 marquee stores all over the Island and 50 days of sampling and promotions.  Here are some of the activities.








What really kicked things into high gear: Advertising and online promotions focusing on blueberries and beauty..


Results: We made a difference!  Sales all over Wellcome chain reported big spikes in sales.   Blueberry Guy visited Taiwan and saw the action and sales were brisk and spirits high at Wellcome. Sales rose -- and that is always expected from promotions.  But, what was encouraging was the re-vitalized "beauty positioning" of fresh blueberries in the marketplace.   It was the talk of the trade and Wellcome is ready to do more!  The fresh sales have also energized the processed area as well!


In short: A quick decision by Blueberry Mandy and an industry investment of $6,700 resulted in a quarter million USD gain in sales

Congratulations to Blueberry Mandy!






















Thursday, December 14, 2017

India Processed Blueberry Market Continues to Grow


When USA first approached India, we anticipated a market for fresh blueberries.    After USHBC primed the market with the USDA-FAS Quality Samples Program (QSP) we began to see continual growth of processed blueberry use in food products.

Indian Food Industry:
>$250 billion industry
>14% of Indian GDP



New Product Use:


Interesting Products:








Friday, December 1, 2017

Sunyong Lee Attends Shoei Expo



What makes overseas promotions work?  Importers and distributors of course.  

In Japan, USHBC works in teamwork with a number of frozen, dried and fresh importers.  Just like back in the USA -- these important "Channel partners" visit the factories, company offices, and continually develop good customer relations.

  • 150 exhibitors
  • 5,000 visitors

This month, Sunyong Lee -- our Blueberry FoodTech Ambassador in Korea visited Japan to attend the 70th Anniversary Celebration of Shoei Foods.   This company is one of the major importers of dried and frozen blueberries.   USHBC is thankful to Shoei Foods for the invite and all that they do so help build the market for blueberries in Japan!