More from the California School Foodservice Meeting!

Here are some views of companies selling to the school districts!

Healthy smoothies!

Hooray for fresh blueberries!   

Pizza companies galore!

Kids love frozen yogurt.  Notice all of the health messages on the sign!

Feeding the Kids!

USHBC attended and exhibited at the California School Nutrition Association meeting in Ontario, California (CSNA).   This is the organization which brings together school district managers and workers as well as suppliers and potential suppliers.    (photo: Area 51, Startrek theme for CNSA Meeting, Ontario!   October 5-7, 2015)

• The blueberry industry participates in what is called USDA Foods which is a system where good-for-you ingredients such as blueberries are purchased by the USDA and distributed to individual states such as California.
• 
  
• School districts can receive these blueberries through the state and can use integrate frozen blueberries into items served in the schools.   Amazing what these school districts can do with frozen blueberries.   A number are making smoothies, yogurt parfaits and muffins
• (Photo above = Action at USHBC booth).   
• A relatively new option for larger districts is to source finished goods from what is called the Commodity Processing channel.   USHBC is a member and participant in an organization called the American Commodity Distribution Association (ACDA).   Large school districts can "divert" shipments of ingredients such as frozen blueberries to approved commodity processors who are either specialized bakeries, dairy, snack and other category companies.   Also, some of the leading major multinational companies operate commodity processing activities to take advantage of their processing capacity to serve the schools.   The concept: companies sell the finished products back to the schools minus the cost of the ingredients and this results in great cost saving for the schools.
• A brand new concept is the sourcing of fresh produce into the school systems.   The product is sourced through the Department of Defense channels (DOD).School districts and individual schools are also sourcing produce including blueberries from local growers and farmers markets.
  

What better way to introduce our future customers to blueberries!

The Ultimate Blueberry Spread

You know it is a great product when the blueberries are the first ingredient!  This product was introduced in Spain and is attracting a lot of attention around the region!
  

Americas Food Show

Here is a photo of the America's Food Show in Miami!  Note the exhibitors from all over the region and the globe.   This year 1/3 of the show was comprised of a huge Algerian pavilion.   (don't ask me why?)  Besides attendees, USHBC was able to meet with exhibitors from dozens of countries who produce products in places such as Trinidad, Brazil, Jamaica and others.

Getting Ready for China!

The China market for fresh blueberries is the "Sierra Madre" of the Blueberry world.   China does grow blueberries and not enough to serve the market.   USHBC is currently working with our partners at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) who are working on our behalf to help open the Chinese market to US blueberries.    We are providing the background information and rationale, and APHIS is negotiating directly with their counterparts in China called AQSIQ.

In advance of meetings we provided documentation:

>Currently most Chinese produced blueberries are produced in June-August and with imports from the Southern Hemisphere, there are major market gaps when Chinese grocery chains  not supplied.
>Even during the peak periods of local production, supply of fresh blueberries has not met demand.

We are looking for a win-win situation and everyone will win when US fresh blueberries enter the Chinese market.

Latin America Markets Develop!

USHBC has paid attention to our neighbors to the south with fresh and processed promotions and exhibitions.  This region known as the Caribbean Basin included the big countries of Mexico and Brazil, but also dozens of smaller countries and island nations.   Dominican Republic = 10.4 million
Costa Rica = 4.8 million.  Trinidad and Tobago = 1.3 million.   Besides the local populations -- these nations all have active tourism businesses.   Miami is the central supply center for these countries and since most import just about all of their needs -- the major importers, grocers and food processors on these islands will work with consolidators who buy and warehouse and ship.   These little markets combined do add up!  We estimate more than 4 million lbs of US blueberries to the Caribbean Island Region alone!   We see further growth in Central America with countries like Costa Rica, Colombia and and others developing strong food industries and growing interest in blueberries.

Latin America does matter and here are the current statistics:

USHBC Meets Latin America

This week, USHBC is participating in the Americas Food Show in Miami.  This includes all of the Americas from Brazil to the Caribbean islands.   Here, USBC Brazil representative Katia Miura meets with a Brazilian manufacturer.