By Linda Harrington Peter Van Dyk, President of

the Wild Blueberry ProducersAssociation of Nova Scotia(WBPANS), welcomed every-one to the 2012 AnnualMeeting and introduced MPScott Armstrong, who had anexciting announcement forthe wild blueberry industry.

The MP for ColchesterCumberland Musquodoboit

Valley was representingAgriculture Minister GerryRitz, when he announced$700,000 in funding for theCanadian Branch of the WildBlueberry Association ofNorth America (WBANA).

The WBPANS held theirannual meeting Nov. 16th and17th at the Best WesternGlengarry, Truro. Over the twodays, guest speakers covered a

variety of topics includingmarket reports, governmentprograms, production man-agement solutions and com-mittee reports.

Dr. David Yarborough,University of Maine, present-ed an over view of 2011World Blueberry Acreagealong with a report on 2012Maine Wild BlueberryProduction.

The 2011 combined highbush and wild blueberry pro-duction was over a billionpounds, with North Americaby far the largest market atabout 818 million pounds.

The total harvest in NovaScotia is expected to be in therange of 40 million poundsthis year, up from 28 millionin 2011.

Peter Burgess, fromPerennia, discussed crop chal-lenges for 2012 includingsome frost damage at the endof April and May, problemswith insects and fulfilling thedemand for increasing num-bers of bee hives. He said

about 4000 hives werebrought into NS from Ontarioon a pilot project this year(the border had been restrict-ed).

The SustainabilityCommittee has been workingon a web-based documentoutlining Best ManagementPractices in NS. This will be awelcome resource for grow-ers and industry representa-tives.

Peter Rideout, SeniorPlanning and DevelopmentOfficer, Nova Scotia Dept.Agriculture, said the currentdemand for wild blueberriescontinues to be strongaround the world but stress-ing the importance of main-taining existing marketswhile investigating thepotential for new markets inother countries. There were250 million pounds of wildblueberries across the indus-

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The WBPANS 2012 Board of Directors posed for a photo at the Annual Meeting. Front row (l to r)-Janet Geldart- Administrative Assistant, Barb Hagell- Director, Jeff Orr- Vice Pres., Peter Van Dyk- Pres.,Dave Atkinson- Director, Joe Slack- Chair of Finance Committee; Back (l to r)- John Quinn- Past Pres.,Barron Blois- Director, Jim Wood- Director, Stephen Parks- Director, Alice Pugsley- Chair of PromotionCommittee, Doug Wyllie- Chair of Research Committee, Allan Bonnyman- Chair of Industry &Sustainability Committee, Dave Sangster- Executive Director.

Wild Blueberry Producers Association of Nova Scotia PresidentPeter Van Dyk opens the 2012 Annual Meeting.

WBPANS 2012 Annual General Meeting

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