BC

It's a long way from Creston to Barcelona, but orchardists Gary and Susan Snow were more than happy to make the trip after learning their company, Tabletree Juice won the FoodNews' World Juice 12 Award for the "Best Pure Juice Product" on October 10.

Photo: Contributed - Tabletree Juice

Gary Snow inspects the cherry crop which goes into making the 'World's Best Pure Juice Product.'

The World Juice Conference attracts over 350 industry insiders from 60 countries.

"It's where all the big players go to get together and make deals," says Susan Snow.

Producers like Coke, Pepsi and Tropicana as well as retailers like Walmart all send representatives to the conference.

It was in that atmosphere that Tabletree's black cherry juice was selected over Nudie Juice, the largest juice producer in Australia, for the award.

"We're actually the farmers that grow the fruit," says Snow.

"Five years ago, the writing was kind of on the wall that the fresh market was really taking a dive. So we did a whole lot of research and came up with a proprietary process and machinery to make the juice."

Not long after that they won a BC Innovation Council award which helped boost their new product. While still continuing to market fresh fruit, the juice is quickly becoming their main product.

Photo: Contributed - Tabletree Juice

Tabletree's World Juice 12 Award says it all.

"We hope with this (World Juice award) under are belt that we can really ramp it up and make a profit. We haven't been for the last five years with our fresh fruit," says Snow.

Winning on an international stage has drawn the attention of a multitude of markets and possibilities.

"After we were in Spain, we had to go to Dijon, France to meet with a researcher there. He's been doing experiments on it for anti-inflammatory properties. We've had a lot of testimonials from people where they're improving with gout and arthritis... It's really quite exciting."

Snow says the initial results are very good.

"There's very few compounds that actually help with inflammation, and our juice does."

Tabletree is now looking to expand both domestically and globally. Surprisingly, it's domestic expansion that is providing the biggest hurdle.

"We're actually having the hardest time trying to find places in our own back yard. We're desperately seeking distributors and places to sell our products. It seems that Europe is more interested. This one big Dutch company came up to us and wanted to...take it over and distribute it all around Europe."

For now at least, the Snow's declined the offer.