California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The star of this year’s Olympics- California Strawberries.  Apparently California grown
strawberries are not allowed in China.  However, members of the Chinese team listed
strawberries as their No. 3 fruit they would like to eat during the summer games.  So
given China’s short strawberry season, Chinese officials looked for help from California
were the berries grow year-round.

Much of the chosen fruit came from a one-acre patch in Watsonville from California Giant
Berry Farms and neighboring Driscoll's berries, who split the job of filling the order.

After the strawberries were placed in plastic clamshells and stacked in the company's
signature cardboard boxes with giant red berries printed on the side, Chinese officials
required one extra touch: a label reading ‘Export to the People's Republic of China’. The
berries were trucked to Los Angeles International Airport for the 14-hour flight to Beijing.
To keep them cool on the commercial flight, the pallets of berries were wrapped in thermal
insulation blankets.

Chinese inspectors then spent 12 hours going over 50 trays of berries before allowing them
to proceed to the Olympic Village.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.