Every year in January we know that consumers make a concerted effort to eat healthy. But in 2021, there is an additional tailwind for fresh produce marketers and retailers.

For most businesses, this harrowing year has often felt like flying the airplane while building it, and yet so much good has come out of an incredibly turbulent period.

Each year retailers lean into the final two months of the calendar to capitalize on a strong demand for produce as well as seasonal items meant to charm the senses during what generally is a jubilant and festive period.

Right about now, we were all supposed to be in Dallas, which was set to host for the first time the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit conference and expo.

It is June 1979, and a 15-year-old boy begins work in the local supermarket of the small town he lives in, like so many generations of kids have done before.

Trends are shifting at such a rate that it can be hard to keep up, but now that we are five months into the pandemic, there is a normalcy beginning to appear.

If there was ever a time to connect with consumers more broadly to maintain the momentum for demand, the time is now.

Time to strike while the iron is hot for strawberries, grapes, watermelons and more.

If the past two months seem more like two years, you are not alone. As COVID-19 fatigue continues, we all long for a return to a sense of normalcy.

March was a very long year.