Friday 3/10/2023
8:00 Registration – Time to Visit with Vendors and Guests
9:00 Welcome to the 2023 AABA Conference
9:05 Amanda Weigel, USDA – Changes to NAP, and Organic Insurance Programs
9:50 Randall Voss, Iowa State Ext. Small Fruit Specialist – Fruit Drop, etc.
10:20 Break
10:50 Ryan Pottinger, Agrauxine by Lesaffre – Biologicals to Reduce Plant Stress & Increase Yield
11:20 Chris Patton, President, Midwest Elderberry Cooperative – The Elderberry Story
12:00 Changmou Xu, Ph.D, Food Processing Center, University of NE – A+ Berry Startup
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Nick Christians, Iowa State Dept. of Horticulture – Corn Gluten Meal for Weed Control
2:15 John Wiskur – The Story of his Startup Company, Aruka Wellness
3:00 Break
3:30 John A. Graves, Ph.D, V.P. Specialty Crops, or Arvind Hirani, Ph.D, Kemin Industries –
“ Developing and Scaling Plants as Sources of Bioactive Molecules “
4:15 Steffen Mirsky, Emerging Crops Outreach Specialist, UW – Madison, – Characteristics of
Successful Specialty Crops & Market Development, via zoom
5:00 Final Announcements for the Day
6:00 – 7:00 Cash Bar and Social
7:00 Banquet – Keynote Speaker: Soumya Roy, Principal, B-Gyan LLC { Consulting Co. }
“ Making of the Next Superfruit: Aronia Berry ”
* { Immediately after the Banquet we will be hosting an Aronia Hard Cider tasting event, pre-registration is required for this event }
Saturday 3/11/2023
8:00 Dean DuVal, Ph. D, AABA Research Chairman – “ Digging Deeper…, What’s the data trying to
tell us ? “
8:30 Caleb Fintel, Natures Formula – Organic Fertilizer & Biological control of Japanese Beetles
9:00 Blake Johnson, American Aronia Accelerator – Update on Company Projects
9:30 Break
10:00 Pawel Eggert, Poland – What’s new in Poland concerning Aronia
10:15 Dean DuVal, Ph.D, AABA Research Chairman – “Aronia Patent Insights”
10:30 Chris Patton, President, Midwest Elderberry Cooperative & Dean Mangrich, Aronia Growers
& Processors {AGP} – Overview of Joint Development of Aronia – Elderberry Products
11:15 Isaac Montanya, Halcyon Technology Holdings/AGP & Souyma Roy, Principal, B-Gyan LLC –
Update on Company Projects
11:55 Introduction of Potential New Board Members
12:00 Lunch
1:00 AABA Annual Meeting & Election of New Board Members
2:15 Closing Remarks
3:00 AABA Board Meeting – New Board Members & Current Board Members
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Non-Member Links
Single Day Conference Ticket – NonMember
Full Conference Ticket – NonMember
Member Links (must be logged in to the AABA website to use)
Single Day Conference Ticket – Member
Full Conference Ticket – Member
NEW THIS YEAR – – – ARONIA CIDER SOCIAL at the 2023 Conference