Fresh crops and family tradition on display for Fowler Farms
Fresh crops and family tradition on display for Fowler Farms
When the Fowler family heads to Anaheim, CA, for the International Fresh Produce Association’s Global Produce & Floral Show, they’ll be bringing more than just apples. They’ll be bringing a legacy of nearly two centuries of farming in upstate New York; a vertically integrated operation that grows, packs, markets and distributes apples and cider.
The Fowler team will also be utilizing a booth designed and built entirely by the family itself.
“This season’s been pretty unique, especially for growers in the east,” said Austin Fowler, co-owner of the Wolcott, NY-based company. “With last year’s short crop, we’re coming into what you might call an apple desert. Varieties we’d normally move up and down the East Coast ran out, and even the west is a little thin. In some ways it feels like the old days before we could store varieties so long. But it gives us a fresh start with a new crop, and we’re excited to get moving.”
The IFPA show is a long-standing tradition for Fowler Farms. The company has been exhibiting for more than three decades, and this year the family will showcase its products and craftsmanship at booth No. 3367.
“As a fully vertically integrated apple operation, we even build our own booth,” Fowler said. “We’ve used everything from reclaimed apple trees to create cider tasting bars to restoring 1930s Model A trucks that we brought onto the floor. We’ve never hired an outside company to do it. This year, since we’re traveling across the country, we’re scaling back a little, focusing on the apples themselves, along with our ciders and some new features.”
Those features will include cider tastings for Fowler Farms’ Honeycrisp Cider and SweetTango Cider, along with a display of about 20 apple varieties offered in multiple pack sizes. Attendees can expect to see eastern favorites like McIntosh, Empire and Cortland — apples that set Fowler Farms apart.
“Our strategy is to highlight what makes us unique,” Fowler said. “Anyone in California can buy a Gala or Red Delicious from Washington, but they can’t buy a McIntosh or an Empire. Retailers looking for something different, something their competitors don’t have, that’s where we come in.”
The Fowler team making the trip will include Austin Fowler, his cousin and business partner JD Fowler, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mike Hacker and new Sales Associate Dylan Lang, who recently joined the company from Wegmans Food Markets. Family members will also be in attendance, underscoring the multigenerational nature of the operation.
For Fowler, the show is as much about relationships as it is about product.
“This industry is about people,” he said. “The IFPA show is without a doubt the best opportunity to see current customers face-to-face, to strengthen those relationships and hopefully to create new ones. We obviously want to pick up business, but if we walk away knowing we did a good job and represented ourselves well, that’s a success.”
Beyond the booth, Fowler expects the industry chatter in Anaheim to focus on the actual size of this year’s crop. Early projections suggested bumper harvests across the country, but Fowler said the reality is proving different.
“There was a lot of hype about a huge crop, but I don’t think it’s going to be there,” he said. “Fruit size is a little smaller overall, and I think that’s going to be part of the conversation on the floor, how to promote what we do have plenty of and manage the varieties that are in shorter supply.”
Back in Wolcott, the company is also making strategic investments. Fowler Farms is adding a new controlled-atmosphere storage capacity this season, using state-of-the-art technology to extend shelf life and maintain quality. Those expansions are part of a steady, measured growth strategy that matches the pace of its retail partners.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said. “We want to grow in step with our customers, investing in technology and infrastructure that helps us serve them better. That’s been our approach for generations, and it’s what will carry us forward.”
