SAVANNAH, GA — Icy winds blasted this usually sunny city during the Southeast Regional Fruit & Vegetable Conference Jan. 8-11, dropping temperatures to as low as 17 degrees, but that was the only thing amiss during the growing annual event at the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center.

Unlike many trade shows, SEFVC is grower-focused, with education and innovation front and center. That has made the conference increasingly popular, with year-over-year growth since its founding in 2000.An overhead photo shows the trade show floor on opening day at the Southeast Regional Fruit & Vegetable Conference at the Savannah, GA, International Trade & Convention Center. This year, 3,234 attendees were present, an increase of 250 over last year’s record-setting numbers.  More than 80 hours of educational sessions were offered and rooms were filled to capacity — some even required overflow rooms to handle the demand.

“We’ve had great support from the industry, great support from our growers, great support from members, great support from our allied members and the media,” said Charles Hall, executive director of show organizer the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Grower’s Association. “This is another growth year — we started around 2000 and we’ve continued to grow at least some percentage point every year since then.  Other shows have other focuses — this is a grower show, growers come to learn how to do their business better. And it’s hard to complain about Savannah — it’s a great location.”

“A show like this gives us a good chance to see some of our suppliers and keep up with what’s going on from a grower standpoint,” said Nickey Gregory of regional distributor the Nickey Gregory Co. in Forest Park, GA. “Plus, it’s hard to beat Savannah — even with the cold it’s still a great place to be.”

John Day of green packaging provider Pratt Industries in Conyers, GA, said, “As a regional show, we can interact with all of our customers. That’s why I like it better than the PMA show actually.”

“You have a lot more one on one time with your customers — at PMA there are just so many people floating around,” added Pratt’s Cliff Vilchek. “It allows us to learn more about the business than just the box side. We got a little surprise the other day when we came in and the high temp was only 28, but Savannah is a great drawing card to bring everybody — the family, your wife, it’s just great all the way around. We’ve had excellent traffic flowing through here and a lot of personal time with the growers.”

“It’s a wonderful show. The education sessions alone are worth attending,” said Randall Patterson, co-owner of Patterson Farm in China Grove, NC, and president of the North Carolina Vegetable Growers Association. “The new technology covering drones and smartphone applications for pest management is valuable information. This show brings people, products, services and ideas together in the same place. Networking benefits everyone.”

The conference is also an opportunity for affiliated industries to show support for their grower-client base.

“We’re here for the growers — we’re here not just to make loans and let them know what we do, we’re here supporting them,” said Rhonda Shannon, senior marketing specialist with Farm Credit Associations of Georgia. “We want to let them know we appreciate what they’re doing. And those who don’t now we’re here and what we do, we can tell them.”

“We support them becoming more educated for the future,” said Farm Credit’s Lauren O’Bryan. “We’re not just an institution that’s here to finance them today, we want to see agriculture stay strong. A unique thing for us to do as a financial institution is look after their long-term growth. But we are owned by our growers and producers.”

That means “we can relate to our growers and what they’re going through,” Shannon added. “They’re getting educated, but we’re getting educated too and it allows us to keep up with them. If we don’t stay up to date we don’t look like a lender that’s going to be able to meet their needs. It’s a win-win for us in a lot of different aspects.”

“We get to see a lot of people we do business with on a regular basis and get to see their faces and spend a little time with them, seeing new products they have coming out,” said John Williams of Herndon Farms in Lyons, GA. “It’s a really fun show for us and it’s a great community of growers and we get together and exchange what’s going on with our operations — packaging, food safety, whatever it is.”

“You always get one idea here that you take back home and put into practice,” said Matt Forrest, president of Dixie Bell Peaches Inc. in Ward, SC, and incoming president of the South Carolina Peach Council. “The show constantly changes to keep up with the latest trends and technology. The high-tech sessions here are cutting-edge.”

The technology hit of the show was New Zealand-based BBC Technologies’ Curo-16, a new, high-speed small fruit filling machine that can sort out soft and bad product and still fill 240 clamshells of blueberries, grapes or cherry tomatoes a minute.

“For my region, the Southeast, Savannah is our biggest show,” said BBC’s Chip Manuel. “We were able to present three new technologies and three new machines, along with our turnkey solutions that offer traceability, and that seems to be where the Southeast is moving. In Europe we sell only turnkey solutions, here it has been more of a one-off, but we’re seeing a big turn in people seeing the value of a turnkey solution — one throat to choke, one person to call for solutions.”

“We work with the GFVGA and education is their core mission,” said Bill Barlow of At the Table Public Relations in Tampa, FL. “We’ve been in several sessions and noticed there’s very high attendance. There’s a lot changing in the industry and a lot of things they need to know.”

Food safety is at the forefront of those educational efforts and ATTPR was heavily involved in the recent rebranding of the old Georgia GAP program, which is now known as Produce Food Safety Services, “which is a great name because it really says what it’s all about and is a lot more descriptive of the services they’re providing for their members,” Barlow said.

“It’s the perfect time of year for shippers to network with growers and put deals together, the timing’s good for certain products, it’s not retailer based really but you do see those guys pop through,” said Mitch Mitchell of International Paper. “But it’s more grower-shipper focused. It’s a chance to see good friends, have some fellowship, work on projects and have some good seafood. And it’s a beautiful place, you can’t beat Savannah. It’s always good.”

The SEFVC has come a long way in a few short years from a first humble gathering in 2000 that was contained to a single hotel ballroom.

“I remember when we had the whole show in one hotel, and the whole trade show in the hotel ballroom,” said Chalmers R. Carr III, president of peach giant Titan Farms in Ridge Spring, SC, and head of the National Peach Council. “Today, we draw 3,000 and cover common ground of interests, no matter which crops you grow. You can learn what you need to know and see what and who you need to see.”