IBA Conference Angers – Day 1

Visit of New Holland

The 6th International Blackcurrant Conference started on 6th June, with a visit of the New Holland plant in Coex. The participants could see where and how their Braud harvesters (or tractors) are being produced. They enjoyed a very warm welcome by the marketing and commercial staff. A one-hours visit led through the different parts of the factory. Everything starts by huge metal sheets: the workers and most precise machinery cut them, bring them into the right shape, before they go to the welding area. From there, they go through painting tunnels and come out in yellow and blue colors. Final steps: assembling all the pieces of the machine and checking the finished product. An amazing and most impressive visit!

Farm Visit

On their way back to Angers, the participants went to see a blackcurrant farm in Lirè. It is always a great moment for blackcurrant growers to see how others get along. Seeing different varieties, getting aware of similar or totally different problems with the crop and sharing experiences. This is what the participants appreciate and await from every conference. Blackdown, Noir de Bourgogne, Andorine, Andega and Royal de Naples are the varieties that only French growers plant. This is a special need for the producers of the famous French Créme de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur).

Dinner – time to talk

The day ended at the conference venue, the Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture (Higher School for Agriculture) of Angers, with a picnic dinner.

IBA Conference Angers – Day 2

Grower’s Day

A day dedicated to the growers and their needs: First of all, a world tour of the blackcurrant production in each country. It allows to share statistics on growing surfaces and yields of the previous year. But most importantly: a representative from each country who talks about the current situation and his forecast for the current year’s harvest. Statistics can be viewed here. (Access restricted to IBA members)

Farm visit, partners, Gala dinner

The following presentations focused on technical and economical challenges in blackcurrant growing. At the end of this morning session, another farm visit led the delegates to “Les Rosiers sur Loire”. There, they enjoyed the Ludeau-family’s hospitality and expertise.The Ludeau’s exemplar farm gave place, of course, to field visits – but also much more. Several exhibitors could present their know-how in weed-control or pollination. The delegates could see the dedicated machines and get precise explanations.

It was a lovely summer day, which ended up with a relaxing boat ride on the Maine-river.Finally came the delicious gala dinner (where every dish contained blackcurrants in different forms) in a spectacular reception hall in Angers.

IBA Conference Angers – Day 3

Blackcurrant Marketing and Consumption

The last day of the conference went in the direction of marketing, health and promotion. It was consumer-orientated and attracted several blackcurrant transforming companies. They could listen to 16 experts in different fields of application. But blackcurrant was always the center of interest. If you couldn’t be with us, remember that we collected all the presentations from this conference (and previous conferences). They are available here, but with restricted access. Some contain sensitive information, and only IBA members can read them.

You want to become a member and access the whole information? Click here!

Blackcurrant Product Competition 2018

At the end of the morning session, we came to know about the winners of the 2nd International blackcurrant products competition. The jury of the competition has been very impressed by the range of innovative products presented. Several students from the ESA have worked on the creation of new blackcurrant based products. The result was exciting!

Read more

In the afternoon, the IBA held its General Meeting (minutes available here) where Jens Pedersen took over the role of President of the IBA after Anthony Snell.

Upon individual choice, the conference ended either with a visit of Terra Botanica, the Giffard liqueur factory, or the meeting of the IBA Agronomy and Plant Breeding sector group.

Blackcurrant products contest 2018: the competition gets regular!

Angers 2018: New contest, new chances to win!

“We were stunned by the creativity of the students”, said Florent Baillard, president of the judging panel. Together with Yves Gidoin from Vègèpolys, a competitiveness cluster of companies and research centers around innovative projects, Stéphane Monnier from Giffard, one of the leading liqueur manufacturers, and Ronan Symoneaux from the “Grappe”-lab of the Higher School of Agriculture (ESA Angers), they tested the products one day before the start of the conference. The contest had been coordinated by Driss Elothmani from the Higher School of Agriculture (ESA Angers).

“They were not only innovative. They also managed to create products which a company could be put into the market immediately. The quality of their work was amazing. Finally, we could decide about the winners with difficulty only”, he said.

Products and winners of the Blackcurrant Products Contest 2018

Blackcurrant kefir, sparkling drinks, cocktails without alcohol, drinkable yogurts, biofilm to be used for makis, dehydrated buds and pastries astonished the panel. On the last day of the conference, they announced their decision.

The kefir presented by Josèphine Morgand, Mathilde Souvestre and Louise Anselme won the first price in the category of drinks.Guillaume Grousset and François-Xavier Sobczak won the price for other food products with their dehydrated blackcurrant buds.

Out of the 7 company products (jams, liqueurs, beer, cordial, gin), the organic blackcurrant cordial from Rocks convinced the panel. It won the price of the category of company products.The companies submitting these products were :

Le Cassissium (France)

La Piautre (France)

MacKays Scottish Preserves (United Kingdom)

Radnor Preserves (United Kingdom)

Rocks (United Kingdom)

White Heron Drinks (United Kingdom)

Windmill Hill (United Kingdom).

And last, but not least, we want to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the sponsors of the blackcurrant product contest 2018. The bank Crèdit Agricole and Giffard were generous and allowed us to reward our winners.

Huge Thanks to all!

the IBA thanks all those who made this contest possible.

Maybe you, our reader, will have something to present at the next competition in 2020?

Difficult to remind everything from 2 days of intensive work. When we have our conferences, you listen to more than 20 different speakers. More than 20 presentations on different subjects. Nobody can expect you to remember everything precisely.

But we are there to assist you: we have collected most of the IBA conference presentations of the past 10 years in our web library.This allows you to view, read, check whatever information you need. The IBA conference presentations are gathered together by year of presentation. As we index all of them, you can also search by category of interest, name of the speaker or keywords.agronomy / plant breeding / horticulturehealth researchmarket / demand & supplysupplier & customer information

Restrictions

Only members of the IBA can access the web library. If you want to view the IBA conference presentations, you will have to open a member session. Two possible options:

• You are a member of the IBA (you already registered individually or you are a member of one of our country associations.

If you already have a website user account, you will now have to enter your user name and password.

If you don’t have an account, please choose a user name and password and submit your request. The IBA General Manager will grant you access as soon as possible.

• You are not yet a member of the IBA. In this case, you may easily become a member upon registration here.

If you do not want to register, feel free to contact our General Manager for your request of information: info@blackcurrant-iba.com