Gary and Susan Snow
Tabletree Juice, made by Susan and Gary Snow at their farm in Creston from cherries, was shown by the Snows at the World Juice Conference in Barcelona, Spain. The conference attracted 350 industry insiders from 60 countries including the big juice manufacturers like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Tropicana and the biggest juice manufacturer in Australia, Nudie Juice. In addition large retailers such as Walmart also attend looking for new products.
While Tabletree may not have the output for the world’s largest retailers, they definitely got on the radar screen when they won the ‘World’s Best Pure Juice Product’ award.
The Snows were featured in an earlier issue of O&V this year when they told us the cherry market was going down and they didn’t see any kind of price revival in sight. They began to search for a way to get added value on their cherries. After much research and considerable investment, they found a way to produce cherry juice without the age old problem of it oxidizing, which mars the look and taste of the pure juice.
After the show in Barcelona Gary Snow reports that a number of different people expressed interest. One of them was a researcher from France who is investigating cherry juice for its anti-inflammatory qualities, and who also wanted to know if Tabletree Juice retained those qualities.
The Snows are frustrated that while they are getting lots of response from Europe about their product, they are having a difficult time getting retailers in British Columbia to look at stocking their cherry juice.
One Dutch company, which Gary didn’t name, was interested in buying them and their process out, but Gary says so far, they have declined the offer.