Chennai US Blueberry Roadshow

Chennai Roadshow Team: USDA-USHBC!

In the field Action - Chennai, Tamil Nadu. USHBC continually takes the highbush blueberry message to the widespread regions of India.  This month we participated in a "Roadshow" event sponsored by the USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) India.  Over the past years, they have been extremely helpful with events such as this. Chennai is especially important as it is a trendsetting South-Indian region which is always on the leading edge of food product innovations.

Welcome to the Chennai Roadshow!

Local Connections. Raj talks dried blueberries with visitors from the local trade.  The gentleman with the Real Seal on his shirt is a sales person from a company who is rolling out frozen blueberries in the region.  We always link our activities with local suppliers, as most food companies are not able to export full loads directly.   Currently we have a solid local list of around 50 supplier companies who actively participate with USHBC activities,

Blueberry Ice Cream Sampling.  Ms. Jeanne F. Bailey, Minister Counselor for Agricultural Affairs and  Adam Branson, Senior Agricultural Attaché for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in India. FAS has been extremely helpful to USHBC for the past decade!

Blueberry Innovators!  Mr. K. Thrinath Kumar of Ajantha KTK products in Chennai proudly featured his launched 50Gram pack of dried US blueberries at the event!  It is very important to have local connections.

The Future. Food Science and Technology students from a local university attend and check out the blueberry booth.   We welcome the students as they are the future customers!

New Product Introduction!   We invited a local innovator firm called Berrylicious to share out booth.  This company from the neighbor State of Karnataka is a leader in this region of innovation.   The company is from Bengaluru which was formerly called Bangalore.  This city is known as one of the "Silicon Valleys" of South India.

Meet the new "Super Chef."  Johnathan of the Hotel Taj, Chennai.  USHBC participated in a chef seminar where a local celebrity chef demonstrated items containing blueberries.  It's all about entertainment to get the attention and awareness!   This fellow did a great job!  I especially admired the way he talked down a rude fellow in the audience who continually talked with his buddy.  (midway through the video)