NuBerry Farms investing in organic blueberries in Peru

Overview of organic blueberries from Peru in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on June 14, 2024.

NuBerry Farms, a blueberry marketing company, is 95 percent vertically integrated with domestic production.

“NuBerry Farms is on a rapid pace to grow its customer base because of the infrastructure and our vertically integrated business model,” said Albert Grimaldi, managing partner of NuBerry Farms. “The locations of our company-owned domestic farms give us a competitive advantage to service our customers.”

The company’s domestic farms are located within Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Michigan, and it has grower partners in North Carolina and Washington. NuBerry Farms also has grower partners in Peru and Chile to support its customers during the winter and spring seasons.

“We are adding new varieties on our domestic farms in Georgia, Florida and Washington,” said John Conner, CEO of NuBerry Farms. “NuBerry Farms continues a growth path to be fully vertically integrated over the next five years.”

The company is also investing heavily on organic production in Southern Peru, making large investments and growing new varieties in the country.

“The industry still has supply gaps on organic production so NuBerry Farms is very focused on covering those supply gaps,” Grimaldi said. “To be successful, you must control your supply of blueberries from seed-to-fork, very simple. You must have adequate supplies of organic blueberries and you must fill the supply gaps with the correct varieties.”

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Last year was somewhat challenging for the blueberry industry, but supplies are more available this season and the company expects overall tonnage to be much higher than last season.

“This domestic season has had good growing conditions and we expect ample opportunities to promote domestic blueberries from Jersey, Michigan and Washington,” Conner said. “We have a great mix of retail, foodservice and wholesale customers. The success to having strong client partnerships is to have consistent high-quality blueberries while having great customer service and having timely communication during times when there are supply gaps.”

NuBerry Farms has seen great success by creating a partnership with its growers and is servicing national retailers as it looks to grow further.

“Through these partnerships, we are vertically integrated to have year-round supplies of fresh blueberries,” Grimaldi said. “Our customer base has more than doubled over the past year.

As advice to retailers, Grimaldi believes stores should be selling in multiples such as three for $5 during peak supply periods, and that will help move volume.

“Also, promoting regional states for ‘home grown’ is still very important to consumers,” he said.

To showcase its blueberries in-store, the company utilizes bright yellow and light green labels to help NuBerry Farms’ market presence and add to consumer recognition.

“NuBerry Farms puts a lot of time and effort into our marketing so to help it stand out by a color on the shelf is great,” said Ali Dandrea, who works in sales for NuBerry’s Northeast office. “For a consumer to buy our blueberries because they see that bright color is what we want, but to have a customer love the quality and taste and come back looking for our label is how we create brand loyalty.”

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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