SEPC draws enthusiastic crowd to Southern Exposure 2026
SEPC draws enthusiastic crowd to Southern Exposure 2026
The Southeast Produce Council welcomed a large and enthusiastic crowd the last week in February to its flagship event, Southern Exposure, where attendees celebrated this year’s theme, From Fields to Families.
Southern Exposure 2026 took place from Feb. 25 to March 1, about a week earlier than usual, at the Orlando World Center Marriott, the same venue as last year.
This year’s iteration featured many familiar events as well as some new ones for attendees to enjoy, including the Tom Page Golf Classic, which is named for one of the founders of the council; the Cool Cucumber Pickleball Tournament; the Future Generations Celebration Dinner; the Southern Roots luncheon (for women in produce); the Good Seeds MENtor Program; the Healthy Family Project Reception; the Hee Haw Hootenanny (aka the opening gala); the keynote brunch; and the expo.
“We had 3,353 people come through the doors,” David Sherrod, the council’s president and CEO, told The Produce News with about 45 minutes left in the expo. “So, we’re excited about that. We had a record number of buyers attending this year: almost 675, and there were still a lot of red and blue badges walking around now.”
All of the networking sessions were sold out, he noted, “and we had 316 booths this year.”
Asked which events of Southern Exposure 2026 had worked especially well, Sherrod replied, “I think that our keynote brunch really set the tone for the whole day. We had the tribute to Old Glory that started the day off. Garry Bergstrom receiving the Terry Vorhees Lifetime Achievement Award was very special. Then for John Maxwell to end things — he really connected with us, and we connected with him. He connects with his audience in a way that is more of a conversation instead of a ‘keynote address.’ I had so many people tell me how much they enjoyed it. It was just a perfect keynote session. It’s going to be hard to beat what we had today, but we’ll do our best to try.”
The keynote brunch led right into the expo, “and there was an excitement that went along with that,” said the council president.
Asked if anything didn’t go quite as planned, Sherrod replied, “The weather cooperated down here, but it didn’t cooperate with some of the people coming down. We did have a few cancellations from the Northeast, and we were sad that they couldn’t be here with us. For the most part, all the events were great. We had so many buyers here to walk the show floor.”
One change which the council instituted last fall at Southern Innovations was repeated here at Southern Exposure: the retail and foodservice attendees had early access to the gold-level and silver-level exhibitors at the expo from 11 a.m. to noon.
“We did the early entry again this year,” said Sherrod. “As the show has grown over the years, we’ve got more and more booths, so attendees need some extra time. We feel like this is something that helps them get through the whole show. They don’t want to go to a two-day show, and we don’t either. This is a way that we can actually extend the hours and also give a benefit to some of our top sponsors.”
He continued, “We feel like things are trending positively for most people. There are still a few people who are not used to it yet, but it is a benefit for our gold and silver sponsors — and the retail-foodservice buyers really like it.”
Asked if the early entry would continue, Sherrod stated, “We’ll talk about it at our summer board meeting and make sure everybody’s in alignment over it, but from what we’ve heard, it looks like we will continue it.”
Thoughts from the expo
The Produce News spoke to some of the exhibitors during the expo to ask what they thought about Southern Exposure.
Sharon Robb of North Bay Produce said midway through the expo, “We have had a very busy booth this year. I made some good treats; I think that always helps, and we have a really, really great location. My team is happy. Traffic has been very good. It started out a little bit slow but has definitely increased and is now very steady. We are seeing all of our key retailers that we wanted to see at the show so far, and we still have a few hours left.”
the session, along with panelists Jennifer Holmes of Food Lion, Adam Lytch of L&M Cos.
and David Sherrod of the Southeast Produce Council.
She added, “This will be my 13th year at SEPC. We have been a silver sponsor all those years. We love the programs that they have done. We just think that it’s a great environment to be in. It’s a smaller environment so we can take time with our clients.”
Asked about the council in general, she said, “I think ultimately they have made sure that the show runs really smoothly. I think that’s the most important thing. They’ve always been a super-smooth, very efficient team, and the environment has always been fun, very hometown and very family oriented.”
Charlie Eagle of Southern Specialties said, “All the SEPC shows are part of a very real community — the produce community. Even though we may be in different businesses, we all share the same passion. It’s exciting to be together with people that are your contemporaries, your compatriots and people that are engaged in the same commerce.”
He continued, “The Southeast Produce Council is probably the best venue to be able to share that camaraderie and those experiences — we love it. It’s in our backyard, and we look forward to it every year. I think this year’s show felt like one of the best attended shows that we’ve exhibited at. All of the events that surround the exhibition have been stellar, including the opening gala, the educational opportunities and the keynote breakfast. The speakers at this year’s keynote breakfast I felt were unique and top quality.”
Midway through the expo, Eagle said, “We’ve seen good representation across the board between retailers, foodservice distributors and wholesalers. We’ve seen many of those target customers and potential customers we hope to see. Like any show, it’s not until the lights go out that you really know how many valuable connections you’re going to make, but at this point in the show, everything looks very promising.”
He continued, “We brought a couple of people to the show that haven’t experienced Southeast Produce Council shows with us, and they’re really enjoying the experience.”
Asked if he’s already looking forward to the fall event, he replied, “Of course we are. We enjoy all the council’s events. The thing that many people lose track of — and that was emphasized today at the keynote — is the amount of community involvement, the amount of community enrichment and participation, that are part of the organization. So, for many of us, we think of it as coming to an event where we get to exhibit our products and discuss our goods, but when we come to these meetings, the total scope of the organizations is highlighted. This is not an event that is based on raising funds to provide profits for an enterprise. It’s an event for an organization that endorses the produce industry, promotes the produce industry, and does good through charities, leadership opportunities, educational opportunities and other means of supporting not only the produce community but the entire community.”
Future Generations Celebration Dinner
Paul Auerbach of Maurice A. Auerbach Inc. said, “We found the traffic very heavy. Now it’s a little lighter — it’s a quarter to four — but around 2-3 o’clock, it was very heavy, very concentrated. There are not only a lot of attendees but a lot of relevant high-caliber attendees, which is what we’re looking for. We’re very pleased. We always love this show.”
Asked if he was seeing a good number of retailers and other buyers, Auerbach replied, “Yes, and also a lot of foodservice guys. Our business is very heavy to foodservice. Our products align very well to that. We’re seeing a lot of foodservice executives, buyers and merchandisers, both from the national foodservice accounts and some other independents.”
Auerbach, whose company has been going to SEPC events for about 10 years, said that “the opening gala last night was very well attended. I have five people here with me, and we spent several hours there. I also went to a customer’s event on Thursday night. This is a great networking show, always has been. We’re very happy with this event.”
He also commented on SEPC itself. “It’s a very good organization. It achieves its mission. I think it draws a wide variety of people from both the Southeast as well as outside the area.”
He concluded by saying, “I’m sure nothing is perfect, but in general I find it’s a very good organization with a very good program and a very good following. It fits very well to our business, both our procurement and our merchandising model.”
John Pandol of Pandol Bros. said, “As we speak, we’re almost all the way through the expo, and we have had steady traffic from the beginning. It’s been a good day, both the show and the other events that we’ve attended. I was at the opening gala, I was at both educational sessions as well.”
He added, “We saw the retailers and the wholesalers. We saw a lot of old friends and a few new friends. We’re a long-established company, so we know a lot of people here.”
Larissa Rice of Phillips Mushroom Farms said, “We saw a lot of retailers, we saw foodservice folks, we saw wholesalers, so I think we got a nice mix of traffic.”
She added, “When we come to the shows, we always like to see our existing customers as well as potential customers. We do have meetings with customers all year long, but this gives us the opportunity to actually see them in person, which is something that we really want to do as often as possible.”
Regarding SEPC itself, she said, “The Southeast Produce Council does a tremendous job. This has always been my favorite show. I’ve been coming to the show for about five years, and what I like is that it’s big but not too big. It’s not overwhelming. I like that you get through the show. It’s a one-day show and it’s full of traffic.”
David Sherrod concluded with these thoughts: “I will mention briefly that our opening gala was one of the best attended we’ve ever had. We had over 2,000 people at the gala last night. It was amazing. We felt that Chris Cagle was right on target with our country theme. He resonated with young and old. I do like that we had a lot of young people out on the dance floor. We’re trying to make sure that we are covering all our generations. We can’t be everything to everybody, but we’re trying to be most to all. That’s all we can do.”
