The North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association (Narba) is proposing to develop a research and promotion programme for blackberries, which primarily aims to raise funds for promotions on the US market.
The initiative would assess domestic production as well as imports given that around 75 per cent of the blackberries sold in the US are procured from Mexico.
“The prices for fresh market blackberries have been pretty depressed the last couple of years, partly because production is increasing rapidly in several production areas (both the US and Mexico), but there is lots of room for growth in demand, so a programme like this could really make a difference,” Debby Wechsler, Narba’s executive secretary, told Fruitnet.com.
According to Narba, the creation of a national programme under the auspices of the USDA would provide an opportunity to:
• Address new and changing opportunities to collectively build strong markets.
• Formalise and strengthen working relationships across the industry.
• Fund much-needed research in areas helpful in developing the blackberry industry.
• Require companies importing blackberries into the US to pay their fair share of the cost of building blackberry markets through mandatory assessments collected by US Customs.
The programme would be funded by a levy of US$.01/lb (a penny per pound) on all North America-produced and imported blackberries, which is estimated to raise between US$1.25m and US$1.5m annually (at current production levels).
Under current proposals, the initiative would be free to choose to invest those funds in research (production, packaging, handling, market, nutrition), information programmes (consumer, industry, trade, food safety) and promotion (nutrition messaging, advertising, media relations, sales development, etc. to a variety of audiences).
The Council would comprise 13 members, each serving three-year terms. Members would include: five US growers (one from each of the five leading fresh blackberry-producing states), two additional grower members (one from the east US and one from the west), one at-large member (a grower, researcher, consumer representative, or other), three blackberry importers and two foreign producers.
So far, Narba has created a draft proposal and is asking growers and other stakeholders for review and input.
If the Working Group finds that the industry is sufficiently supportive of a proposal, it will then be presented to the USDA, which will administer a referendum of producers and importers.
The USDA suggests a minimum of 12-18 months once the proposal is submitted for formal review before a programme is declared effective and the Board is seated.
