The Blueberry Value Chain With Soren Bjorn

The Business of Blueberries

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 once again by Soren Bjorn president of Driscoll’s of the Americas. Bjorn has been a frequent guest on the show, with featured discussions on episodes 003, 004, 088 and 089. With more than 100 years of farming heritage and hundreds of independent growers around the world, Driscoll’s is passionate about growing great tasting berries.

“We, in our mission, call that alignment and we work on that every day. That's everything from making sure that we have quality systems where growers can get immediate feedback from what is the quality of the berries that were picked that day to frequent market updates. … We also have a consumer panel that we talk to very regularly. This is thousands of people that have volunteered to be on our consumer panel, and we engage with them and we share that information back with the growers.” - Soren Bjorn

Topics covered include:

• How prioritizing the customer has impacted Driscoll’s business.
• The systems and programs Driscoll’s has created to connect producers and consumers.
• Bjorn’s take on the future of the blueberry industry.

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, Jody McPherson in North Carolina, Matt Macrie in New Jersey, Pat Goin in Indiana, Elise Oliver in California,TJ Hafner in Oregon, Alan Schreiber in Washington, Mario Ramirez in Mexico and Luis Vegas in Peru. This was recorded on June 7, 2023.