Berry Study Leads to Sweet Faculty Startup

Authors

Kateri Hartman, Nebraska Innovation Campus, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

8-10-2022

Document Type

News Article

Citation

Nebraska Today, https://ianrnews.unl.edu/berry-study-leads-sweet-faculty-startup

Comments

Copyright © 2022 University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

When the American Aronia Berry Association approached Husker researcher Changmou Xu with a problem, he set out to solve it in a big way. He and his wife and co-founder, Xiaoqing Xie, have worked with numerous campus entities to increase the value of the aronia berry through their startup, A+ Berry. The company is focused on juice products made from aronia berries. Due to their astringency,the berries don’t have an inherent demand; however, they have great potential to impact the Midwest and beyond through their high return value as a crop and impressive health benefits.They boast significantly higher levels of antioxidants than many other popular berries and are projected to have a much higher return per acre than other common Midwestern crops.