Bryan Ostlund and his wife and business partner, Lisa Ostlund, have announced they are retiring as of September 1 after more than 35 years of administering Oregon commodity commissions, including 30 years with the Oregon Blueberry Commission.

During their tenure, the Ostlunds helped expand domestic and international markets for Oregon blueberry growers and helped steer the industry into new frontiers.

“We came in at the beginning of a whirlwind and to watch the industry ramp up from a 15 million pound industry to 165 million pounds has been amazing,” Bryan Ostlund said. “It’s been a very dynamic rocketship ride.”

Through his participation in multiple trade missions, Bryan Ostlund helped open South Korea to fresh blueberries from Oregon, the first and still only state in the U.S. able to ship fresh blueberries to South Korea, and he followed that by helping open the Philippines and Vietnam to fresh blueberries sales, as well.

Early in his tenure, Ostlund said he was told the industry would never be able to ship fresh blueberries into South Korea. “I was told that it was a waste of time to try to make that happen,” he said, “and 2025 will be our fifteenth export season with fresh blueberries to Korea. So, to be able to give the Oregon industry, which has been so supportive of us and our whole effort, something like that is fantastic.

“And then, on the heels of that, to open up the blueberry marketplace in the Philippines and Vietnam and to be active in other parts of Aisa, has been rewarding as well,” he said.

“The Oregon industry gave me a whole lot of rope to either run with or hang myself, and I just ran,” he said. “I didn’t hang.”

Ostlund attributed much of the success he had in opening markets to a close working relationship with the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

“Success often time has many partners,” Ostlund said, “and the Oregon Department of Agriculture has been a fantastic partner in this whole (market expansion) thing. It was absolutely a team effort.”

He said he was also grateful for the support of the USDA and Oregon State University and the research they have provided to help the industry remain competitive in an international marketplace.

Alongside the major successes, Ostlund said it was the little things, the day-to-day functions that he and Lisa have stayed on top of that he is most proud of. “It’s just hanging in there,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not necessarily the highlights. It’s just that you don’t drop the ball on things that you are responsible for maintaining. It’s always running a clean office, always getting perfect audit reports.

“People gave us their trust, and, to my knowledge, we have not let them down, and that’s important.” Bryan Ostlund

“People gave us their trust, and, to my knowledge, we have not let them down, and that’s important,” he said.

David Brazelton, chairman emeritus of Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, who served multiple years on the Oregon Blueberry Commission, including as its chairman, said the Ostlunds will be greatly missed.

“Since they started working with the Oregon Blueberry Commission in 1996, Bryan and Lisa and their company, Pioneer National Advertising, have brought valuable professionalism to the benefit of blueberry growers throughout Oregon,” Brazelton said. “Their tremendous knowledge in how to administer an organization that is tasked with advancing growers’ interests made the OBC a model for state commodity commissions. “Their retirement is well deserved, but they will be greatly missed,” Brazelton said.

“Bryan and Lisa have done a wonderful job for our Blueberry Commission,” said Doug Krahmer, another grower who has served multiple years on the commission. “From day one and even in the transition process that we are in now, they have been and still are being very helpful and transparent.”

Krahmer added that the Ostlunds' work in administering the South Korean Export Program has been outstanding. “If it hadn’t of been for their energies and their ability to keep meticulous records, we wouldn’t be exporting blueberries to South Korea,” Krahmer said. “South Korea is very meticulous and, they want everything done exactly right, and any less of an administrator would not have kept us in that program the way Bryan and Lisa have.”

In addition to the Oregon Blueberry Commission, the Ostlunds administer the Oregon Mint Commission, the Oregon Ryegrass Commission, the Oregon Tall Fescue Commission, the Oregon Fine Fescue Commission and the Oregon Clover Commission. In addition, their office serves as administrators of the Oregon Seed League, the Oregon Essential Oil Growers League, the Oregon Seed Research Institute and the Mint Industry Research Council, a national organization that funds research for the U.S. mint industry.

When the Ostlunds launched their operation in 1989, they started as administrators of only two commissions, the Oregon Highland Bentgrass Commission, which has since rolled its assessment authority into the Oregon Fine Fescue Commission, and the Oregon Ryegrass Commission. The business at the time also included political campaigning. The Ostlunds soon, however, decided that politics wasn’t their cup of tea and began focusing on agriculture.

“Politics just wasn’t for us, and we really enjoyed agriculture,” Ostlund said. “And then you start to develop a reputation and attrition happens, people retire, and people started contacting us, and so it just became a specialty for us.”

Their business grew from four full-time employees to the six that work out of their office today. The Ostlunds also work with several outside contractors.

Ostlund said it wasn’t any one thing that pushed the couple into retirement but just the fact that they both will be turning 65 this summer and that they felt the time was right to pass the baton to the next generation.

“We just felt like it was the responsible thing to do, to facilitate this transition while we can,” he said. “And that is really in the interest of our clients and our employees.

“It has been a phenomenal opportunity for Lisa and I to own our own business and work for a lot of groups and boards. It’s just been a fantastic ride and a great career, working with a lot of great people, but time marches on.” Bryan Ostlund

“Right now my relationship with Oregon State University has never been better,” he said. “We’ve never seen so many research proposals come in to the commissions. We have a great relations with (College of Agricultural Sciences Dean) Staci Simonich and Shawn Donkin, the associate dean of research. It’s all very positive right now and that’s a good position to be in when you’re hitting the exit.”

“It has been a phenomenal opportunity for Lisa and I to own our own business and work for a lot of groups and boards,” Ostlund said. “It’s just been a fantastic ride and a great career, working with a lot of great people, but time marches on.”

Ostlund noted that the September 1 retirement date isn’t set in stone and that he and Lisa will do what they can to facilitate the transition into new leadership for the different commissions they administer and for their staff.

“We will see how this process goes and what is needed,” Ostlund said. “We needed to pick a date and don’t want to burden the whole process by going too far out there, but we are also in a position where there is no reason for us to leave anybody in a lurch.”