Oct 31, 2022Blueberry industry shares supply, price, sales data
The closing keynote panel at The Blueberry Summit shared collective industry progress on the development and deployment of the BerrySmart Insights platform.
Joe Vargas, director of business intelligence at the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, reviewed the collaborative industry effort to build a more comprehensive, granular and accessible database that industry members can also use to help analyze and track supply, historical pricing and sales of their blueberries in the U.S. market.
The annual Blueberry Summit was in Nashville in early October.
The panel included members of the Bytecode team, a leading data analytics consultancy that USHBC and an industry advisory board selected to develop and program the automated production and pricing data platform.
The panel also heard insights from Joe Barsi, president of California Giant and chair of the United Blueberry Advisory Council (UBAC), which was instrumental in securing the incremental funding necessary for this industry data project. Barsi shared his personal commitment to sharing California Giant sales data as part of this project and noted the expected benefit of being able to make more timely business decisions with a more comprehensive understanding of past volume, pricing and demand trends shaping the market.
Vargas updated the industry on the progress in data collection and the programming of automated data connections with each contributing member company. Every UBAC member company is on board with this project, and three are already working with Bytecode and USHBC to set up automated data connections. Participating member companies received a detailed project update at the International Fresh Produce Association’s Global Produce and Floral show in Orlando in late October.
Contact Joe Vargas, [email protected], to learn more about how to participate in the BerrySmart Insights project and to use this tool to support blueberry business performance tracking, planning and forecasting.
PHOTO: Joe Vargas, director of business intelligence at the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, discusses progress on the BerrySmart Insights platform at the Blueberry Summit in Nashville. PHOTO: USHBC
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