PALM DESERT, CALIF. — Starts to seasons, new marketing opportunities and displays, and growing produce segments were among the highlights of exhibitors' booths at the West Coast Produce Expo.
Pete Hernandez and Nicole Minnich-Zapata are shown at Misionero's booth at West Coast Produce Expo. (Photo: Christina Herrick)
The team at Misionero said the company's organic packaged salads were the top item to promote to its booth visitors. These include the company's Renaissance Blend and organic butter salad kits.
“We've seen a lot of customers so far,” said Nicole Minnich-Zapata. “Everything has been fun [at the event] with good activities to keep people engaged.”
Shown are Michael Reimer and Dave Maddux at Brandt Farms' booth. (Photo: Christina Herrick)
It's the start of stone fruit season for Brandt Farms, and the company said it talked to West Coast Produce Expo attendees about its good fruit quality, size and promotable volume “like its summer,” said Michael Reimer.
“We're ready to roll,” Reimer said.
Another highlight is the company's Grape Jammers, which Reimer calls “the grapiest grape because of its rich concord grape flavor.” Jammers come in traditional clamshell and traditional grape bags, Reimer said.
Pictured are John Kang, Fatima Moussawi, Dan Adkins, Bob Tillemans, Dave Hoogendam (and the Sungold Kiwi Brother at right) at Zespri's booth. (Photo: Christina Herrick)
Zespri's team was keen to share the news of the company naming Jason Te Brake as its new CEO.
The team also said it has been a great, long season for kiwifruit thanks to good weather and will likely run through October. Zespri said it has plenty of display shippers for its organic and conventional fruit for retailers.
Zespri debuted its Kiwi Brothers characters — Sungold and Green — as part of its marketing strategy for U.S. consumers this year. Zespri plans to use this year to introduce consumers to Sungold and Green and will promote them on social media with a bigger rollout planned for 2025.
“It's just to bring some fun to the kiwi market,” said Fatima Moussawi.
Stephanie Cantero and Gabe Romero at the Foxy and Foxy Organic booth. (Photo: Christina Herrick)
Visitors to Foxy and Foxy Organic's booth wanted to know more information about the volatility of the market and when romaine hearts would come online, said Gabe Romero with the Nunes Co..
While there is some volatility with cold weather in Salinas, Calif., the team at Foxy and Foxy Organic said the company is confident it can meet retailers' needs.
“They can rely on 52 weeks of the year [production],” said Stephanie Cantero of the Nunes Co.
Richie Keirouz, Dino DiLaudo, Nick DiCarlo are shown at the Westmoreland Sales booth. (Photo: Christina Herrick)
Topline Farms showed off its full line of organic products for attendees.
“That's a growing item for us — the organics,” said Dino DiLaudo.
The company also highlighted its mini cucumbers, long English cucumbers, tomatoes including beefsteak and tomatoes on the vine, and bell peppers, which are all grown under lights in Canada for 12-month production.
Baltazar Garcia and Matt Hubbard are shown at the Local Bounti booth. (Photo: Christina Herrick)
The team at Local Bounti said it was excited to meet consumer demand and requests with its recently launched baby spinach and arugula.
“We brought these in due to high demand by customer request,” said Baltazar Garcia. “We're answering that call to customer requests with these products.”
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