More Berries in the Box

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As Dalhousie’s Industry Chair in Wild Blueberry Physiology, David Percival had just one challenge: to put more berries in the box.

That was 20 years ago. Today, wild blueberry production in Nova Scotia has quadrupled to over 400 million pounds annually. And it’s a story that begins with Mr. Blueberry himself, John Bragg.

As Dalhousie’s Industry Chair in Wild Blueberry Physiology, David Percival had just one challenge: to put more berries in the box.

That was 20 years ago. Today, wild blueberry production in Nova Scotia has quadrupled to over 400 million pounds annually. And it’s a story that begins with Mr. Blueberry himself, John Bragg.

Bragg, from Springhill, N.S., is the chairman, president and co-chief executive officer of Oxford Frozen Foods Limited and president of Bragg Lumber Company. Bragg is easily recognized as one of the many faces of the blueberry industry in Nova Scotia and is a huge advocate of research at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture.

“The AC was a natural fit,” says Bragg of choosing to invest in the Agricultural Campus 30 years ago. “Wild blueberries are a crop so suited to this region. But it’s an industry that competes with other yields around the world. We have to be efficient.”

 

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Photo via Dalhousie University.