The 2021 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention will open Feb. 8 online and continue with live sessions through Feb. 11.
There will be 76 exhibitors in the virtual trade show with another 25 or more companies helping to sponsor the event, according to a news release.
Organizers arranged 44 educational sessions in four different tracks: tree fruit, vegetables, small fruit and marketing.
Registration and a detailed schedule is at www.mafvc.org and is $40, which includes access to all parts of the live, four-day, virtual event, as well to the recordings of all the sessions until March 31.
Pesticide credits will be available for growers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. A special session will also be presented in Spanish for Spanish-speaking industry members.
Also, the virtual event website will feature a poster competition in which graduate students will present the results from their fruit and vegetable research projects.
Another page on the website will feature the recipients of the various awards usually presented by the sponsoring organizations at the convention each year.
All the educational sessions are scheduled during the daytime, but the virtual event will also include a bring-your-own Ice Cream Social 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Feb. 10 to allow growers to casually visit with each other over a bowl of ice cream and some chips, almost like they do at past conventions in Hershey, Pa.
The Mid-Atlantic Convention has been jointly sponsored by the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association, the Maryland State Horticultural Society and the New Jersey State Horticultural Society for the past 43 years.
In 2014, the Virginia State Horticultural Society also began meeting at the convention.
Penn State Extension, University of Maryland Extension, Rutgers Cooperative Extension and Virginia Cooperative Extension helped organize the educational sessions.
For more information, visit www.mafvc.org or call 717-677-4184 or 717-694-3596.
