International Blueberry Organization

I attended the North American Blueberry Council (NABC) and the United States Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) meetings last week in Portland, Oregon. There was discussion about forming an International Blueberry Organization (IBO). To date an IBO steering committee has been formed consisting of representatives from the United States, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Australia, England and South Africa. In addition the committee has reached out to representatives in New Zealand, China, Japan and Korea.

The primary goal of the IBO would be to improve industry communication in the following areas:

1) Health
2) Production Research
3) Promotion
4) Food Safety
5) Blueberry industry technology

The first action of the steering committee is to form the IBO and then create by-laws that would govern the organization. In addition, they will develop a budget and recommend initial and on-going funding sources in order to accomplish their objectives. I am in support of the IBO considering blueberry production in the world is expected to reach 1.0 billion pounds in the next five years. The U.S. as well as other major producing countries like Chile are going to have to develop other markets and increase blueberry demand around the world in order to move the supply.

Someone once said, "Many hands make light work." With many countries working together to increase demand and open new markets across the world, it will take some weight off of the U.S. blueberry industry's shoulders. And hopefully that will help U.S. blueberry growers remain competitive in the future.