Industry News

Current Happenings

Small Fruit Conference

If you missed the 2024 Small Fruit Conference, recordings of the sessions will be coming soon. Check back for updates.

Baking Professionals Outreach

In 2021, the WRRC was awarded a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the USDA to fund a two-year Baking Collaborative project. Partnering with Washington State University’s Breadlab, King Arthur Flour and the Bread Bakers Guild of America, the WRRC set out to create a suite of materials geared toward professional baking and pastry chefs on how to utilize frozen Washington red raspberries. Since the grant wrapped in 2023, the WRRC has continued partnership and promotion in the baking and pastry industry to further build assets and form partnerships.

Virtual Washington Red Raspberry Harvesting and Processing Tour

The WRRC continues to support the U.S. Trade Representative’s Investigation No. 332–577, Raspberries for Processing: Conditions of Competition between U.S. and Foreign Suppliers, with a Focus on Washington State, for the purpose of providing a report that provides an overview of the U.S. raspberry industry in Washington state and assesses the conditions of competition between U.S. and foreign suppliers of raspberries meant for processing. As part of the International Trade Commission’s 14-month study, their staff planned to participate in an in-person tour of our harvesting and processing practices. However, due to the pandemic restricting travel, the WRRC created this comprehensive virtual harvesting and processing tour that is now accessible to the ITC, as well as the general public.

School Foodservice Update

As part of our efforts to engage school foodservice, the WRRC launched a K-12 School Foodservice Toolkit to provide this important audience with resources just for them. The Toolkit showcases top school chefs and culinary professionals and includes recipes formatted and designed specifically for schools. In addition to the resources, the WRRC partnered with Healthy School Recipes to host a webinar to walk K-12 operators through the resources and give them practical tips and tricks to incorporating frozen raspberries in a variety of formats into their school menus.