Wednesday, December 13, the 8th annual New York Produce Trade Show was held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The show had another great turnout. Although it was busy throughout the day, the morning seemed to attract more attendees than the afternoon. “It feels like the traffic is better with better attendance compared to last year,” said Greg Golden with Amazon Produce Network.
“It’s a good show for us,” said Stephen Cowan with Mucci Farms. “It is a bit more relaxed than some of the other shows and traffic was steady.” Harold Paivarinta with Red Sun Farms added that New York City is a great place to be this time of year. The company had prior meetings set up that resulted in great conversations with (potential) buyers.
Retailers were missing
Several exhibitors did mention that they had missed some buyers and felt that this show focuses more on the wholesale and grower side of the business rather than the retail side. They also shared that moving the show a week closer to Christmas may have hurt.
George Shropshire with Love Beets mentioned that this is the company’s local show and they will keep supporting it. “It is a really important show for us now that we are growing beets in Rochester, NY,” he added.
Exhibitors were generally positive about the uniform-size booths that created the same level playing field for all.
