It has been a challenging season for South American blueberry suppliers. What impact has the supply shortage had on your business and how have you managed to deal with the difficulties?
Clay Wittmeyer: Our international distribution to the US, Asia, and Europe gives us the flexibility to adjust to market, weather, and phytosanitary changes that occur each year in some shape or form. We have an annual plan including a Plan B for most eventualities to give our growers the best possible outcome.
Which new varieties are showing the most promise?
CW: Naturipe has several breeding programmes both with university programmes as well as with our growing partners across the world. Our focus is to blend the best berry attributes such as colour, size, seasonality and shelf-life with what the public demands in a new berry; all of these considerations are taken into account in developing future cultivars.
What are the most important projects Naturipe will be working on for the remainder of 2014 and into next year?
CW: Our ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh blueberry programme is gaining widespread attention and we are working to export these products to convenience retail locations.
Innovation is frequently cited as one of the key drivers of growth within the berry category. Can you give me some examples of innovation at work within Naturipe?
CW: Naturipe takes great pride in the fact we are focused on innovation. I’ve already mentioned our RTE products with extended shelf-life. Our retail packaging over the past few years has also been very successful. Along with our line of rte products, our new coextruded bouquet pack of long-stemmed strawberries was a resounding success during Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, not just in the US, but in Asia as well.
