<p><strong>Carol Stream, CA</strong><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Blue Book Services has recently announced their economic report, stating that most industry businesses have remained relatively stable and continue to make forward progress.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By collecting and analyzing business and financial data on companies throughout the fruit and vegetable supply chain, the company is able to gauge economic stability.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Ken Schultz, Vice President of Rating Services at Blue Book says, "We saw quite a large change in the percentage of rating downgrades in 2009 and 2010 after the initial economic ‘crisis’ hit. Since then, however, the overall number of downward rating changes reported by Blue Book has decreased from a high of over 2,500 in 2009 to slightly over 1,600 through the first three quarters in 2012. What this tells us, is the age-old adage that the produce industry is recession-proof ‘because people always need to eat’, while not entirely true does lend some credence to the fact that our industry is less impacted by the economy than other industries, such as manufacturing."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">According to a press release, the number of industry bankruptcies was constant from Q3 2011 through Q1 2012, holding at 23 bankruptcies per quarter. In the second quarter of 2012, the company observed a drop to only 13 companies reporting bankruptcy, a decrease of 43% in the last year.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The company says it’s important to continue moderating and evaluating current or prospective trading partners in which Blue Book Services can provide. The company will provide tips like these to attendees at this year’s PMA.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.producebluebook.com" target="_new"> Blue Book Services </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
