Feeling the Arctic Blast in the Upper Midwest

On Tuesday morning the temperature in Minneapolis bottomed out in the single digits caught up in a mass of arctic air that covered the Upper Midwest, the Great Lakes and portions of the mid-Atlantic. You could practically hear the wood pellets dropping into firepots. While this sudden cold snap is forecasted to leave as quickly as it came it certainly gave everyone notice that home heating season was here. I expect pellet retailers were busy and moving lots of inventory for those consumers who had winter sneak up on them. 

Formalizing Our Approach to BBQ Wood Pellets in 2020

One of the outcomes from our board meeting late last month that wasn’t discussed in the last Pellet Wire was some decisions our board made around wood pellets manufactured specifically for BBQ appliances. Beginning in 2020 pellets manufactured specifically for the BBQ market will be included in member dues calculations. Until our board meeting, these volumes were open to interpretation as our organization wrestled with the role our organization should play in this category. The explosive growth of this market has gotten real airtime at every board meeting we’ve had over the course of the last two years and it's grown increasingly clear that BBQ wood pellets will be a part of this industry’s future for years to come. Formalizing how these volumes are treated from a dues perspective also formalizes our intent to support the industry’s efforts in that market. The board also voted to add a barbecue committee to our roster of committees and have appointed Mike Curci (Andritz) and myself as co-chairs to get us on the board. Mike and I had a conversation on Tuesday and sketched out a game plan to get as many voices to the table as we can between now and the end of the first quarter of 2020. Those voices will help us answer the question “What can and should the PFI do for the BBQ wood pellet segment on a go-forward basis?”. Our action plan will revolve around the answer to that question.

We’re planning a conference call for December open to members and non-members (both fuel manufacturers and appliance manufacturers) who would like to contribute to the conversation. Please watch the Pellet Wire and the PFI’s social media channels for more information.

If you’d like to contact me before then I welcome your inquiries at [email protected].

Conference Season Just Around the Corner

Between now and the end of June the PFI will participate in two important industry conferences and host one of its own. The International Biomass Conference & Expo will be held February 3-5 in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference opens with a roundtable discussion populated with association executives from around the broader biomass industry and the PFI has been represented on that panel since the conference was launched a decade ago. On March 11-14, the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Expo travels to New Orleans. We’ll be there networking with both fuel and appliance manufacturers and catching up on the issues that face our downstream retail partners.  A bit further out into the calendar is our own conference, this year being held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Please mark June 23-26, 2020 on your calendars to join us in Milwaukee.