Wild Blueberry Solutions Challenge Winner

A Nova Scotia company that produces nutritionally enhanced wild blueberries is the winner of an industry innovation prize.

Clever Fruit Products of Mahone Bay, Lunenburg Co., is this year’s winner of the Wild Blueberry Solutions Challenge and has been awarded $126,000, to be used to help grow sales, pursue new export markets and develop new products.

“Nova Scotia’s wild blueberries are a leader among agricultural exports and there is tremendous future growth potential for the sector,” said Agriculture Minister Keith Colwell. “By supporting this challenge, we are helping our innovative companies develop new products that will bring greater income from their berries.”

The company uses fermentation to increase the nutritional strength of fruits such as wild blueberries. Its blueberries are sold as high-quality ingredients to manufacturers of foods and food supplements that have medicinal benefits, including potential improvement in cholesterol health.

The Wild Blueberry Solutions Challenge is a competition among Nova Scotia companies to develop innovative value-added products and packaging solutions. It is a joint initiative between the Department of Agriculture and the Wild Blueberry Producers’ Association of Nova Scotia.

Quotes:

“This project will help expand the use of wild blueberries as an ingredient and as a functional food. The research will build on the wonderful health benefits this amazing fruit can provide.”

– Barron Blois, president, Wild Blueberry Producers’ Association of Nova Scotia

“We are excited to have won the Wild Blueberry Solutions Challenge and look forward to working more closely with the Wild Blueberry Producers’ Association to bring our natural, premium fermented health products to market. This investment is key to completing the next stage of scientific research and the launch of our natural product line's initial offering, which has already generated global interest.”

– Liam Tayler, president, Clever Fruit Products

Quick Facts:

• Clever Fruit Products’ product development is science-based, led by Dalhousie professor Vasantha Rupasinghe, a functional food scientist and the Killam chair of Functional Food and Nutraceutical, working with Perennia Innovation Centre
• funding for the project comes from the Building Tomorrow Fund, a three-year, $9-million provincial investment in agriculture, fishing and aquaculture
• wild blueberries are Nova Scotia’s largest agriculture export at $104.4 million in 2018

Additional Resources:

For more information about the Department of Agriculture, visit: https://novascotia.ca/agri/

To learn about the Wild Blueberry Producers’ Association of Nova Scotia, visit:
https://www.nswildblueberries.com/

For more information about Clever Fruit Products, visit: https://cleverfruitproducts.com/