June 16, 2009
Media contact: Anne Russell
Cell: 604-798-3709
Office: 604-795-2826
anne.russell@ufv.ca
From berry picker to blueberry baron: UFV honours Parm Bains for community contributions
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| Parm Bains amidst his blueberry crop. |
When Parm Bains was spending his summers picking berries in Richmond as a young boy, he didn’t imagine that in the future he’d be a world-travelling blueberry industry leader and entrepreneur.
Bains combined his business acumen with a strong sense of community leadership and duty to help the University of the Fraser Valley in several ways. Now UFV is formally recognizing him with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Something about his early experience working on farms stuck with Bains, and he decided to make agriculture his field of study when he entered university as a young man.
His Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1979 was a ticket to a job in the Fraser Valley, where he would eventually settle with wife Satwinder and their three children: Simran, Suvneet and Navtej.
After stints working for the Ministry of Agriculture, the East Chilliwack Agricultural Co-op, and as general manager of the same Richmond farm where he picked berries on as a boy, Bains and his family decided to buy their own blueberry farm in Abbotsford in 1989 and began to contribute to their chosen community.
Starting out on the blueberry farm, Parm and Satwinder continued working in their professional fields and managing the farm. They later diversified into packing, processing, and international marketing of blueberries through Westberry Farms, a family-operated fruit-processing company of which Bains is president and CEO. He is a key player in the blueberry industry of BC and internationally, supporting it by serving on the US Highbush Blueberry Council.
“At first we were farmers, but then the opportunity came our way to expand and diversify,” Bains recalls. “When NAFTA came in a lot of the big processors went under and the opportunity arose for smaller companies to fill the gap.”
International interest in blueberries has exploded in recent years due to the health benefits of the fruit crop, and Bains says British Columbia is poised to become the number-one blueberry producer in the world.
While business has been good to him, Bains also believes in giving back, and it seemed like a natural fit when the University of the Fraser Valley was looking for help in making connections with the Indo-Canadian community.
He agreed to co-chair the fundraising committee to help towards the development of the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies and the Regional Innovation Chair in Canada-India Business and Economic Development.
While he acknowledges the leadership role he played in raising $1.25 million in funds to match a provincial grant of $1.25 million from the Leading Edge Endowment Fund, Bains says it was truly a grassroots community-supported effort. He worked tirelessly with other community leaders and gives them full credit for the successful campaign.
“Their support made it all happen,” he said “We really came together as a community to raise that money. It wasn’t so much through corporate donations. We approached and received support from individuals, small businesses, Sikh temples, and the non-Indo-Canadian community.”
There’s another dimension to Bains’ involvement with UFV that isn’t as well known, and that’s his role as a cultural “bridge-builder” for the university in India. He accompanied UFV president Skip Bassford and Premier Gordon Campbell on a trade mission to India in 2003 and helped the university make many connections and develop relationships with Indian counterparts.
This led to several memoranda of understanding with Indian universities and colleges, and an eventual UFV business administration degree in Chandigarh. He continues to give UFV generous amounts of his time and volunteers to support the university’s efforts. Bains continues to support UFV by taking on a position on the UFV Foundation Board to develop funding in other areas.
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| Parm Bains with UFV president Skip Bassford and chancellor Brian Minter |
Helping the university to make cultural connections in India, and in B.C., is what Bains is most proud of when considering his interactions with UFV.
“The fundraising was very important but it was only a small part of the effort to create an Indo-Canadian presence at UFV. Travelling to India and helping to make those connections really completed the circle,” he says. “Now I feel such joy and fulfillment when I see visiting scholars walking through the doors of the centre, or when I think about the business students in Chandigarh getting a UFV education, or students from here doing study tours of India or taking courses in Indo-Canadian studies. The UFV vision is quite an achievement for our community.”
Bains’ community involvement isn’t limited to UFV. He is a keen advocate of community development and has dedicated much of his time to volunteering on numerous boards and committees both locally and nationally, including the BC Food Processors Association, the BC and Canadian Horticulture Association, the Fraser Basin Council, the BC Blueberry Council, and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC, amongst many others.
Bains is also fulfilling his philanthropic interests by helping needy children access a much valued education. He and his wife Satwinder and his parents have taken on the project of funding a school in their home village in the Punjab in India.
In his spare time, he enjoys reading about the history of India during the Anglo-Sikh era and the rise and fall of the British Empire.
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