More than 200 high-volume retail buyers from across the country are expected to attend the International Floriculture Expo in Miami Beach, FL, June 19-22. By late March, more than 150 exhibitors had signed up for the show. Last year’s show, held in Miami Beach for the second consecutive year of a five-year run there, drew 1,750 industry professionals and 190 exhibitors. Numbers this year are expected to equal or exceed those, show officials said.

High school prom season in late April, May and early June is a growing market for supermarket floral departments, according to floral executives on the West Coast, East Coast and in the Southwest.

“It’s a huge and growing market for supermarkets that can respond with timely and reliable service,” said Jon Strom, vice president for new business development at Price Chopper Supermarkets, a 125-store chain in upstate New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire, with headquarters in Schenectady, NY.

Mastronardi Produce/Sunset, headquartered in Leamington, Ontario, will have a full delegation of company representatives at booth 211 at the CPMA/ACDFL Annual Convention & Trade Show in Calgary April 11-13.

Christian Denault

“Courchesne Larose has changed.

Village Farms will have strong representation at the CPMA/ACDFL Annual Convention & Trade Show in Calgary on April 11-13. Helen L. Aquino, marketing manager; Aman Chatha, Northwest regional sales manager; Andrew Sable, Delta gatekeeper, British Columbia; and Mitch Fortier, Delta greenhouse grower, British Columbia, will be on hand at Village Farms’ booth 618.

It appears to be an accepted assertion that fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income people is relatively low, largely because of cost. But a new study reveals that quality, selection and convenience are also big inhibitors to this population’s produce-consumption levels.