New Jersey farmers get the blues
Archived article from Oct 13, 2000
By Michele Hujber
In 1993, New Jersey's blueberry industry was at an impasse: Prices were down, and consumption was flat. When Dennis Doyle, then president of the North American Blueberry Council, broke the news to blueberry growers that they would make no money that year, they were clearly disappointed.
Doyle knew something had to be done, and eventually he turned for help to Adesoji Adelaja, a professor of agricultural food and resource economics and now dean and director of research at Cook/New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES).
"We had a blueberry-growing industry in New Jersey that was facing a major challenge in terms of prices that had peaked," says Adelaja. "They wanted the experiment station to come up with a solution to the problem, and we weren't satisfied with just doing the research. We designed a program of research that included assistance in actually implementing the technology."
Since then, faculty from a variety of disciplines have worked to develop a plan to revitalize the blueberry industry with the development of new products. Project researchers have tackled details ranging from the complex science of identifying heretofore unknown antioxidants in blueberries to figuring out what might be the best channels of distribution for new products. "This has truly been a team effort," says Adelaja. "It involved food scientists, product development people and economists."
The long-term objective of the blueberry growers is to market blueberry products on the basis of verifiable health benefits. Research has identified blueberries as a virtual powerhouse of anthocyanins, which have antioxidant qualities, although it's not yet known whether powdered berries used in many blueberry products are as potent as fresh. With a USDA grant, Robert Rosen, associate director of the Center for Advanced Food Technology (CAFT), and others are investigating the matter.
Meanwhile, Stan Cajigas, formerly the manager of CAFT's technology extension program, developed four potential products to boost consumption of blueberries -- iced tea, pomace, juice and sports drink. Beverly Tepper, an associate professor of food science, conducted taste tests.
Now Rutgers is working with the blueberry industry to market the iced tea and pomace, the two most favored products. In conjunction with blueberry growers, Rutgers has created a company called Blueberry Health Inc. to handle marketing of the products. Blueberry growers join as partners; Cajigas, who retired from Rutgers, is CEO.
According to Cajigas, the market is ripe for blueberry products. Given the good taste of the product and the health benefits of blueberries, the iced tea is expected to do well.
Marketing began this summer with "Jersey Blues" iced tea sold at farm stands and county fairs, to good reviews. "We've had some reorders, and we're seeing consumers themselves trying to buy cases from the company," says Brian Schilling, assistant director of the Food Policy Institute, a Kellogg Mid-Atlantic Consortium-funded institute headquartered at Rutgers. Schilling has worked on strategies to market the new blueberry products.
Pop's Farm Stand in Cranbury, owned by Diane and David Byrne, is one of approximately 50 farm stands that carry the iced tea. "A few customers buy it every time they come in," says Anne Byrne, a niece of the owners. "There's a lot of curiosity about the product."
"We're getting 90 to 95 percent acceptance ratings when we do surveys," says Adelaja. "The next phase, now that we know consumers like the iced tea, is to get more interest in the product. We are working on a marketing plan and are in discussions with companies that distribute nationally."
Adelaja foresees more of this type of university-industry cooperation in the future. "One of the goals of Rutgers is to be an 'engaged university,' to be connected to people around the state. In addition, part of NJAES's legal mandate is to come up with innovations and products that address problems in the communities that we serve. The agricultural community is certainly one of the key communities.
"We still have a long way to go in fashioning industry-university collaborations, but we can't shy away from looking for solutions for industry. We need to do more of these things. The university has the needed expertise and a great deal of the solutions, but it's important to apply them to pressing problems," Adelaja says.
|
