A Conversation with Ben Goudie Membership Development Manager with Blue Diamond Growers

A Conversation with Ben Goudie Membership Development Manager with Blue Diamond Growers

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh

We asked Ben Goudie a few questions about the industry. The first question was about self-fruitful varieties such as Independence and Shasta. “I think it's up to the grower to choose the varieties that work best for them. But certainly those have a fit, especially when it comes to on the farm,” Goudie said. “They make a lot of sense. And then also those varieties are establishing themselves a good place in the market and are becoming very valuable.”

And then we asked Goudie about Blue Diamond Innovation, as they were the first to come out with the almond milk beverages and other items. “Innovation is a cornerstone of Blue Diamond and we want to see a significant amount of our revenue coming from new innovative products in the future and not just have to rely on commodity sales,” said Goudie.

And then we asked Goudie about how Blue Diamond Views the California Almond Sustainability Program, which is known as CASP led by the Almond Board of California. “We're encouraging our growers to get involved in CASP. Not only is it good for the industry, but it will also help us as Blue Diamond to generate and to aggregate that key grower information so that we can answer requests from our buyers,” he said,

“CASP will ultimately give our growers a better return because we can do business with those buyers that are very discriminating, that are asking for specific information requests,” Goudie said.

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