In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” host Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by Joe Vargas, director of business intelligence at the USHBC and NABC, Joe Powell of Wish Farms and Michael Hill of H&A Farms. These industry leaders discuss the recently launched BerrySmart Insights Fresh Platform. The platform helps the industry more accurately measure production, inventory and pricing with a weekly report on supply, demand, inventory and shipments. It’s an important part of the USHBC strategic plan to help growers and marketers become more efficient, resilient and innovative. 

“There's really three big pieces to this new launch that's going to provide the industry value. I think the first thing is bringing together data from throughout the industry for an accurate, timely understanding of the market. Number two, it provides more than just past and present data. It's also including a critical piece, which is forecasting, which will … help guide the industry, which is critical. And three, it's industry owned. It's governed by the USHBC and overseen by the USDA, and the industry decides on what's important and necessary to help innovate and encourage a more data-driven industry.” - Joe Vargas

 Topics covered include: 

• An introduction to Vargas, Powell and Hill. 
• A look at the launch and value of the BerrySmart Insights Fresh Platform by its developers and participants. 
• The role the industry plays in the platform’s success and accuracy. 
• How to contact “Data Joe” Vargas with questions about the platform. 

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you’ll hear from Derrin Wheeler in Georgia, Pat Goin in Indiana, TJ Hafner in Oregon and Mario Ramirez in Mexico. This was recorded on June 14, 2023.