MASHANTUCKET, CT — A large and enthusiastic crowd gathered March 11-12, for Bozzuto's Inc.'s 2014 Independent Retailer Conference, held at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, here.Vendors from bakery, deli, meat, frozen food, dairy and grocery were all key parts of the annual event, but fresh produce again was front and center, as vendors from the fresh produce sector were situated in the lobby area that leads to the main trade show area.

Florida Fresh Potato Growers Inc. is a grower cooperative comprised of potato growers in southern Florida. The cooperative moves product to retail, foodservice and wholesale distributors primarily on the Southeastern and Eastern seaboards and in the Midwest, as well as into Canada. Varieties grown and marketed are new-crop red, gold, white, purple and fingerling potatoes.

Ken Wiles, vice president of sales with cooperative member Mack Farms Inc., a cooperative member, said that the 2013-14 south Florida potato growing season has been one of mild weather.

Fred Gmitter is one of about 26 faculty members at the University of Florida’ Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences, Citrus Research & Education Center, whose sole job is to focus on citrus.

“Our staff members work on many aspects of citrus,” said Gmitter. “We cover all types of plant pathology, entomology, nematology, breeding, horticulture, processing, pest control and even economics, food safety and much more, which are all related specifically to citrus.”

It is news to no one that the world of public communications and, therefore, of public relations, has changed dramatically in the last two decades with the rise in popularity of the internet and particularly in the last decade with the growing ubiquity of social networking.

Newly introduced by Sambrailo Packaging in Watsonville, CA, for its line of Mixim System clamshells, according to Jim Scattini, vice president of sales and marketing, is a button lock option for the one-pound strawberry clamshell.

“It is still the Mixim design,” he said, “but it has a button lock versus the friction lock.” The company now offers both options, depending on customer preference.

When strawberries are in abundance, promotions are paramount to keeping volume moving. But when a shipper has sudden surges in volume, not all customers are capable of responding quickly enough to the unexpected increase in supply.

“The problem,” said Louis Ivanovich, vice president of West Lake Fresh, a Watsonville, CA-based brokerage specializing in strawberries year-round, “is that through the process of consolidation, so many buying entities “have gotten so large that even though they would like to, they just can’t respond quickly enough.”