This month's berry news and insights

Been missing the latest news and updates on everything berry? Not to worry, here is your rundown from July 2020. 

Well-Pict Berries, Watsonville, Calif., is offering a free digital retail kit to retailers to help them boost online berry sales. The kit includes marketing materials for all levels of the produce department, from buyers to merchandisers.

A new Washington organic blueberry company is marketing its first fresh crop. Root 24 Farms, Moxee City, Wash., has 650 acres of organic production, with “many more” in transition to organic.

U.S. fresh fruit exports rose by nearly 10% in May compared with a year ago, offsetting an equal decline in fresh vegetable exports. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that U.S. fresh fruit exports in May totaled $367 million, up 9.9% compared with the same month a year ago.

Blazer Wilkinson, Salinas, Calif., which grows and ships conventional and organic strawberries under the Foxy brand, is adding blueberries to the program. The berries, grown in California, Washington and British Columbia, will be available through mid-September, with ample volumes for ad opportunities starting July 15.

Blueberry breeder Fall Creek Farm & Nursery Inc., Lowell, Ore., has hired Alberto Medina-Mora as regional director for Mexico. Medina-Mora most recently was senior director of development and innovation at NatureSweet Mexico, where he was in a variety of management roles since 2009. He will be based at Fall Creek’s facility in Jalisco, and reports to Oscar Verges, president and chief operating officer

Now that the USMCA has begun, what can we say about the North American Free Trade Agreement? I have assembled a few charts that show trade trends between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Berries and lettuce showed the highest value among U.S. fresh produce exports to Canada.