PMA Fresh Summit 2008 - photo album

PMA's over. It was a grueling two days (for three of us, it was three days). Everyone worked hard and it paid off. Here are just a few pictures from the show.

PMA Fresh Summit about to begin

Here's a photo of our booth space at PMA just before installation began. Everything's here.

For those counting, there are 8 single crates and 7 double crates. We fill an 18 wheeler with them.

You're not seeing things, those are trees on the left-hand side of the photo. We've brought along one papaya, one SlimCado, one starfruit and one lime.

More updates to come.

The produce industry equivalent of getting on a Wheaties box

We're now hours away from our largest tradeshow of the year - PMA, Fresh Summit.

As the first to arrive in Orlando, I'm happy to report that I don't feel alone. A photo of our Purchased Fruit Manager and Sales Rep, Sam Skogstad is on the program, a PMA map of Orlando, and even a box of breath mints.

Scotch bonnet pepper makes the Omnivore's 100: foods to eat at least once in a lifetime

You've probably eaten s'mores, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and a hot dog from a cart. But what about crocodile, sea urchin or -- dare we say -- roadkill?

All of these foods made it onto the omnivore's 100, a list of foods that Andrew Wheeler, a British food writer, believes an omnivore should try in his or her life.

The genius of the list lies in its diversity, and in the clever way it challenges one's assumptions about food. Some items are luxuries, such as a meal at a Michelin-three-star restaurant or caviar and blini. But junk food is also represented, both the American Big Mac combo meal and Japanese Pocky, which are thin, pencil-shaped biscuits dipped in chocolate or other coatings.

Things that can be painful to consume are well represented in a range of mediums, including a raw Scotch bonnet pepper (one of the hottest peppers in the world), a variety of curries (Wheeler is English, after all), and baijiu, a popular Chinese distilled spirit that is very strong (between 40 percent and 60 percent alcohol) and whose taste is often described as akin to rubbing alcohol.

See the entire list

PMA 2008

Produce Marketing Association's (PMA) Fresh Summit is coming up - October 25th-27th. The preparations are almost finished.

To remind our retailers and wholesalers that we will be at the show, a new ad has been created that looks out from under a grass hut - just like our grass huts in our booth. To partner with this ad, a new email signature and market update are being used by sales. The ad and email signature are seen below.

Our web site is visited by a lot of folks who aren't retailers and wholesalers, so the web page has the same 'grass hut' theme but uses the 'vintage' postcard to emphasize with postage stamps from all the countries we import from. View the home page animation.

Wakefern Food Show a hit

Wakefern Food Corporation is the merchandising and distribution arm for over 200 ShopRite stores in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware. ShopRite has grown into the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States and the largest employer in New Jersey.
Last week, Wakefern held a food show where vendors like Brooks Tropicals displayed their "wares". All the stores' Produce Managers were in attendance over the two day event.

Unfortunately I lost the booth photos but before I left I was able to take in-store photos of our Caribbean Reds and starfruit on display.

ShopRite stores also sell the Caribbean Red cut in half, a popular produce items for all our retail customers.

Fundraiser in Belize is a great success!

Fruta Bomba held a fund raiser to raise money for Felipa Morales our Research Manager to have an operation.

Ismael Gonzalez, Personnel Coordinator said of the fundraiser, "It was a great success we sold over 250 plates of food and after all our expenses we made approximately $1200.00 BZE."

BBQ chicken with rice and beans and coleslaw were on the menu.

Most of the food was donated. Office staff, managers and supervisors manned the grills and the kitchen.

Working hard at the fundraiser were Samier Ake, Manuel Pech, Maricely Westby, Sergio Madrid, Yuri Ayuso, Adivineli Wicab, Ismael Gonzalez, Cornelia Herrera and several supervisors from the production department and safety department. Felipa's family and friends pitched in to prepare some of the meal.