“Most importantly, we are extremely proud of our consistency and our ability to show our partners that we can get them the best product on a year-round basis,” said Steve Adlesh, the company’s long-time director of sales and marketing. “When customers or perspective customers come to our booth, they will see exactly what we offer in terms of produce and how we go to market to support our merchandise.”

While there are many products to discuss, from Western vegetables to Asian vegetables at the booth, Adlesh makes it clear that broccoli remains at the forefront of the company’s large assortment of produce.

In fact, broccoli has always been at the forefront at Beachside Produce. Adlesh explained that Apio, the previous parent company, got involved with broccoli in the 1980s and was the first company to field-pack its broccoli crop. “Prior to that all broccoli was packed in bins and moved to a shed,” he said. “Field packing was simply more efficient.”

Years later, Apio was purchased by Landec, a technology/value-added company that was focused on developing products for increased shelf life. Landec was a publicly-traded company, Adlesh noted, and many publicly-owned companies have a hard time dealing with weather-related issues and price volatility associated with produce. That gave a number of grower owners involved with Apio the chance to band together to form the field pack side of its business and create Beachside Produce and continue the fresh field packed product line.

Today, broccoli remains at the forefront of the operation, particularly with its high-quality Song Hee Red broccoli brand, which is extremely popular with the Asian community.

At the same time, however, broccoli is now sharing much of the limelight with such other Western vegetables as Brussel sprouts, lettuce, cauliflower, celery, romaine hearts and the leafy lettuces as well as other items as parsley, snow peas and leeks. Through a merger with an established company — Pismo Oceano Vegetable Exchange — Beachside Produce has also become a major player in the fast-growing Asian produce category.

Adlesh also noted the Beachside Produce’s grower owners have a huge commitment to the produce industry.

“The fact that we have a full line-up of vegetables, combined with excellent quality, great service and the ability to be consistent resonates with retailers and food service companies,” he said. “The bottom line is that we have a lot of faith in what we are doing and a good understanding what our customers want and need.”

The booth at the show will be a combination of offering great samples and educating the community about Beachside Produce.

“We are going to serve cabbage, Brussels sprouts and celery dishes,” Adlesh said. “Because of what we do at the booth, we always have a very good turnout and we always look forward to this show. We want to make visitors aware that we are most proud of our consistent, year-round supply of products and what we are doing with our Asian vegetable lines. There is so much to discuss and we look forward to getting the word out. ”The goal is to keep the momentum going in the right direction. “That is another message we want our customers to know,” Adlesh added. “We will continue doing what we do best and that means offering a year-round supply of western vegetables and make sure we can make it easy for the customer and supply them with the quality they need into the future.”