Conversations at United — Mayda Sotomayor with Seald Sweet

Vero Beach, Fla.-based Seald Sweet, a division of Greenyard, made a point at its United Fresh Live! booth to emphasize the international aspect of its business, introducing visitors to its growers around the world as part of its video education offerings.

“We really wanted to stress the international side of the produce industry,” said CEO Mayda Sotomayor, who was part of a panel with growers from South Africa, Peru, Argentina and Chile that included crop and country updates along with information on the commercial situation for each commodity.

Seald Sweet also offered content about what’s happening in the European retail market, consumer trends post-COVID and other topics. The company also gave a virtual tour of its New Jersey facility and featured its commodity managers talking about the status of the grape, avocado and vegetable seasons.

Sotomayor, who is also a board member of the United Fresh Produce Association, said the virtual show was a hard sell initially but that United broke new ground by finding ways to emulate some of the key aspects of traditional trade shows, along with adding new tools.

“When Tom (Stenzel) and the team told us about this, we were just shaking our heads, saying — this was like three months ago — we were shaking our heads, saying, ‘No, there’s no way, we can’t imagine,’ and now it’s a for-real thing, and I think we’ve made history,” Sotomayor said. “The board really was courageous on taking the leap, and the staff on United, I know how hard they worked, so I think that everyone is very pleased.”

She noted that connecting with buyers to the degree that happens on a traditional show floor was a challenge, but she added that, by the end of Power Hours the third day of the show, Seald Sweet had already had more than 1,000 visitors to its booth, probably more than it would have had at a traditional expo, along with lots of downloads of its content.

“I think we expanded our possibilities as much as we could, and some things we probably would never have done in a booth, present, face-to-face, we were able to do in our virtual booth,” Sotomayor said.

For more supplier updates from United Fresh, check out the following:

• Conversations at United — Aaron Acosta with Villita Avocados
• Conversations at United — Brianna Shales with Stemilt
• Conversations at United — Michael Castagnetto with Robinson Fresh
• Conversations at United — Amber Maloney with Wish Farms
• Conversations at United — Nelia Alamo with Renaissance Food Group
• Conversations at United — Leona Neill with Red Sun Farms