California Blueberry Growers Share Data

California Blueberry Growers Share Data

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
With California Ag Today, I’m Tim Hammerich.

It’s peak time for our blueberry harvest here in California. Growers from throughout the state all participate in an innovative data sharing program called the Blueberry Marketing Resource Information Center, or B-MRIC. California Blueberry Commission executive director Todd Sanders says this is helpful for all growers and handlers to make more data-driven decisions.

Sanders… “Well, what it is is it's just a reporting system that's required by the state of California. If you're a blueberry grower over 50,000 pounds, you have to put in data, which is inventory on pack styles and processing and fresh, you know, FOB pricing data. All that data has to be entered in every single day if you're over 50,000 pounds. So it's real time data that they can see. And everybody, if you're a California blueberry grower or handler, you have access to the B-MRIC program. And so you can see that data as quickly as possible. And then once a year, at the end of the year, the California Blueberry Commission sends out its annual report and they get to see all the report and all the data. And that allows growers and handlers to make smart business decisions when they can see this data in real time.”

Sanders says the data is collected, then quickly anonymized, aggregated, and made available for everyone in the industry. Learn more on a recent podcast episode of The Business of Blueberries, wherever you listen to podcasts.

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