The Fruit Growers News


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Cleaning Up

Food safety requirements provide
opportunity for blueberry growers

By Greg Brown Associate Editor

New food safety requirements may be seen as a detriment to some fruit and vegetable growers, but a group of Michigan blueberry growers saw it as an opportunity. Twenty-four growers recently formed the West Michigan Processing Co-op north of Holland to clean fruit to HACCP standards, according to Tom Pascoe, the operation’s general manager. Thanks to the changing times and the independent nature of fruit and vegetable growers, the group decided to develop their own processing cooperative, according to Pascoe. The group aims to provide cleaned fruit ready to the processor’s freezer or products. Because of exacting high quality standards in the industry, growers saw the advantage of joining together for the co-op, Pascoe said. Splitting the high costs associated with cleaning their fruit, they hope to profit in the long run by cleaning non-members’ products too. The facility features an automated packing line with specialized equipment like metal detectors and three color sorters. The expense is symbolic of the growers’ commitment to their product. The operation has two unloading bays for unprocessed fruit and four outgoing shipping bays for cleaned fruit. The fruit will be primarily packed in 30-pound bulk boxes and sold to large companies such as Pillsbury and Sara-Lee. The co-op is affiliated with MBG Marketing in South Haven, Mich. as their marketing and sales entity. Based on the cost of the color sorters and facility building costs alone, the 24 growers have shared costs well over $500,000 in initial investments, according to Pascoe. The facility was carefully constructed with procedure documentation in mind. Receiving, sorting, cleaning, packing and shipping areas are distinctly divided within the new structure and each have established methods of operation, according to Pascoe. When running at capacity, Pascoe expects the facility to employ nearly 40 seasonal workers. Initially the facility will process member growers’ produce, expanding hours of operation when necessary, depending on the harvest volume. Eventually Pascoe and the co-op members hope to clean non-member’s blueberries. Long term plans also call for the new facility to branch out beyond blueberry cleaning to other small fruit processing,. The co-op’s membership is now closed. The group has members from West Michigan communities famous for their blueberries: Holland, Fremont, West Olive, Grand Haven and Fruitport, and others. “It’s a state-of-the art facility. Everything is brand new,” said Carl Nelson, president of the co-op’s board of directors. Nelson, who grows 46 acres of blueberries in West Olive, said the cooperative was needed due to new federal requirements for cleaning fruit. Members of the board of the directors for the West Michigan Processing Co-op include: Nelson, president; John Baumann, vice president, Holland; Jeff Groenhof, secretary, Holland; Dennis VanderKooi, treasurer, Allegan and Richard Ortega, Nunica, officer at-large. Prior to this position, Pascoe worked as general manager of the Holland MBG warehouse for three years.