Fresh ideas, exciting rebrands and unexpected finds were part of the excitement at the International Fresh Produce Association’s Global Produce and Floral Show in Atlanta, Oct. 17-19.
From farmers sharing stories of post-hurricane resilience to the latest innovations in avocado marketing, these vendors introduced creative uses for products like mint oil or real-time 4G/5G trackers. Check out some of these memorable updates seen and heard at the expo.
The Avocados From Mexico booth was abuzz with excitement. A line for its guac bar featuring dozens of ingredient options wrapped around the booth with guests waiting to sample a custom guac creation with chips. The line illustrated avocados and guacamole as top trending food items.
Avocados are indeed having their moment. “Avocaoda sales have exploded,” Ana Ambrosi said.
“Having avocados in a cart drives sales up by 13%, with branded avocados increasing it 25%,” she added.
So branding matters, and Avocados From Mexico is spot-on with its sporting campaign that starts with college football and ends with NFL and the Big Game.
Some highlights of featured items at the booth:
• AFM celebrated its partnership with Rob Gronkowski for the Big Game and debuted his touchdown of a recipe for “Gronkamole.”
• Guests explored its immersive merchandising room, the epic guac bar with 50-plus toppings and a Guacology VR experience.
• In addition, the AFM team connected with retailers and partners, sharing more than 6,300 samples of delicious avocado recipes.
Kymberlee Chance said C&S Farms is a Florida-based company that grows and ships various produce including tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, squash and zucchini. Although based out of Florida, the company has locations in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and has been affected by recent hurricanes, leading to replanting efforts.
“We are growers, packers and shippers,” Chance said. “And since we’re conventional farmers, we grow products in the ground rather than hydroponically — and we grow it all ourselves.”
At the expo, they featured red peppers, Roma tomatoes and other vegetables.
“At our core, we are a data company,” said Daniel Knauer of Copeland. “Our devices are just a conduit to get data from the truck to the user, so we’re really honing in on how we can better leverage that data so that the customer can get the maximum value.”
At its show booth, Copeland featured demonstrations of the following solutions:
• Copeland GO real-time 4G/5G trackers, which enable visibility to shipper temperatures and locations.
• Copeland GO wireless loggers, which provide vital cold chain information that can be downloaded and viewed when a product reaches its destination.
• Copeland GO PDF mini loggers, which monitor the temperatures of perishable products and record time during distribution and storage.
• Cooper-Atkins thermometers.
• Oversight software portal, which consolidates cold chain data into a user-friendly, cloud-based platform.
Brent Scattini shared news at the expo about his company’s new look.
“The Lange Cos. has rebranded from the Tom Lange Company International Inc. to Lange Cos. And our three divisions: Lange Fresh Sales, Lange Logistics and Lange Farms (formerly Lange Seven Seas),” he said.
Scattini said it handles a variety of products globally including its own organic and conventional strawberries.
At the expo, Scattini featured the company’s Seven Seas brand organic strawberries as well as conventional strawberries from California and Mexico. In addition, the company featured its asparagus program sourced from Peru and Mexico and a citrus program from New Jersey, with additional offerings like grapes, blueberries, pears and pomegranates from nine countries.
Bailey Myers said Owyhee Produce was celebrating 70 years of farming at the expo.
“It’s not our first rodeo. We’ve done a lot of things and tried a lot of things and feel like we can help our customers with their needs for watermelons, sweet corn, onion, asparagus and even mint oil,” Myers said.
The mint oil, Myers said, is an essential oil that can be purchased on the company’s website and in retail stores. It’s not only topical for adding to carrier oils for massage or other functions, Myers said, but edible for adding to tea or other drinks.
Your next read:
• Fresh ‘worth fighting for,’ says IFPA CEO Cathy Burns
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 1
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 2
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 3
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 4
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 5
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 6
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 7
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 8
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 9
• Seen and heard at IFPA’s Global Produce and Floral Show 2024 — Part 10
