We have to tell it to the whole world: blackcurrant is the best berry for life! And what a better way is there to get the message to millions of people all over the world than through facebook?

There are almost 1.5 billion community members worldwide, and you may all join the blackcurrant community, using the language which you find easiest for you: English, German or French. Here are the links:

Blackcurrant – best berry for life

Cassis – lecker gesund

Cassis – petite baie contre stress et tensions

The content will be mostly the same for the three languages. More and more content will be added, including recipes for cooking with blackcurrants and the use of blackcurrants for human health. Be active, like, comment, share, and help us to have a community of at least one thousand people within a year. The message will spread, and more and more blackcurrants used all over the world!

IBA conference 2015 in Vilnius

The newly created Lithuanian blackcurrant association hosted the International Blackcurrant Association European conference in June this year in Vilnius, under the motto “Blackcurrant – the stress hero”.  70 delegates from almost 20 different countries enjoyed extremely interesting presentations and discovered blackcurrant farming and processing in Lithuania. Many thanks to the Lithuanian team for their involvement and wonderful organization!

more pictures

If you were not able to assist, you may read what happened at the IBA Annual General Meeting here.

IBA conference 2016 in Ashford

We are now looking forward to the next IBA conference, which will be held from 14th to 16^th June 2016 in Ashford, Kent, organized by the UK blackcurrant association. The location is very easily accessible and close to some excellent blackcurrant production areas.

The conference will focus on health aspects derived from using blackcurrants, marketing innovation and managed production. You will all soon receive detailed information and invitations by the organizers of the conference. We hope to meet you in Ashford!

A brand new IBA website

Since the creation of the International Blackcurrant Association, our website has been successfully uploaded with many useful information, enjoyable pictures, interesting feature stories. It has been a good way to show our valuable partnerships to the public. But since then, the world around us and our technology has changed also, and the site needed a severe update.

We have thus worked (and are still working) on a new version of this communication tool. It still includes the same information than the old website, but is now more user-friendly and accessible on smartphones. The name has also changed, partly for a better SEO (search engine optimization). You can now discover it under www.blackcurrant-iba.com (although you are still able to access it with the old address).

Restrictions

One major change has been to limit access to confidential information to IBA members. This concerns mainly presentations from our annual conferences, Annual General Meeting minutes, certain messages and documents like our global harvest estimation sheet. The purpose of this restriction is, of course, to spread information positively. Active members will have the advantage to access every information. Confidential information will not be available freely to the whole world any more. We will add several sections with limited access in future. Some of these are information on blackcurrant varieties, pest control, organic growing, or a conference organization guideline etc.

For getting free access to the whole website (every IBA member can have access!), you simply have to register if you come across one of the restricted pages.

Feel free to contact our General Manager Stefanie Sharma (blackcurrant@free.fr) for any suggestion, ideas for new sections or special needs and enjoy using our new website.

The International Blackcurrant Association has changed its logo! The Exec (President, Vice-Presidents and General Manager) have asked a designer to work out a new IBA logo, and here is the result: a simple illustration of a blackcurrant cluster with a leave and our name, in the colors of blackcurrants.
This logo will be displayed in all our communication from now on:

either colored

in black and white

or in shades of grey.

We hope you like it!

After Bill Floyd’s retirement from his position as General Manager of the International Blackcurrant Association on 31^st May this year, I am very pleased, honored and excited to take over this huge task. Bill has contributed a tremendous amount of time and energy to the development of an international blackcurrant family.

Working only part-time as IBA’s General Manager, I also continue to work as marketing and communication manager at the Cassissium. The Cassissium is a museum dedicated to blackcurrants in France where I developed the scenography. And I am thus familiar with all the aspects of blackcurrants: culinary, agricultural, botanical, historical, medicinal etc. I am also in touch every day with people who discover the world of blackcurrants. And I can see that most of them know almost nothing about the wonderful qualities of our superfruit.

This website and facebook will be our main tools to bring blackcurrants closer to the people. Today, blackcurrants only represent a tiny share of the global fruit market. But who knows: developing new products, putting together our experiences, and sharing our common passion with the world might lead to a growing demand tomorrow.

Stefanie Sharma, IBA General Manager, October 2015

I have retired from the IBA as of 31 May 2015 and regretfully, due to ill-health, am unable to attend this Conference and say farewell, face-to-face, with the many, many members of the blackcurrant world that I have enjoyed meeting over the last 8 years.

The journey of the IBA started in New Zealand in 2008 with the founding sponsorship and inspirational philosophy of Mr Genjiro Katayama. Over the last 7 years we have all enjoyed comradeship and learning through the IBA Annual Conferences and our website.

Each Conference has been a highlight for me, with a growing and unique sense of ”˜family’ and friendship emerging from the ”˜hybrid vigour’ of our 20 different country-cultures.  I am truly sorry to miss all of this in Lithuania. But the good news is that my successor, Stefanie Sharma, has already shown a skill and passion for the work that means the IBA will continue to grow and develop as the unique industry entity it is.

My wife and business partner, Sandee, and I, have been honoured to be part of a team that conceptualised and implemented the now globally successful organisation that is the IBA. Sandee and I will continue to assist the global blackcurrant industry and the IBA in roles still to be defined. We welcome that opportunity to continue working with and enjoying the company of you all.

Bill Floyd, Outgoing General Manager, June 2015