ORLANDO, Fla. — Across the Southeast Produce Council's Southern Exposure trade show floor, a recurring theme emerged: resilience in the face of erratic weather. While companies like North Bay Produce and AC Foods navigated the fallout of recent cold snaps and California storms, others such as Giumarra Cos. and Freshouse highlighted aggressive expansions in Florida and Mexico to ensure year-round availability for increasingly health-conscious consumers.
It was all about carrots at the Freshouse and Hapco Farms' booth. The aptly named Carrot Czar waved to passersby, and those manning the booth handed out carrot-shaped pens and socks with carrot prints on them.
Karl Ronhave, procurement and sales manager, says the carrot program is doing well, especially as California faces unpredictable weather.
The company expanded its carrot program in Florida in 2025 and did so again this year. The program will move to Canada as the season begins there at MR Farms.
“We have a year-round carrot program,” Ronhave says.
Visitors to the Sumo Citrus booth want to talk availability, timing and season duration, says Ron Steele, vice president of citrus sales for AC Foods. Steele says he has also discussed many promotional opportunities with digital and coupled that with demoing Sumos in-store.
“It's about consistency of what we do,” he says.
Visitors to the booth also had questions about the weather in California and its impact on the Sumo crop.
“It's been a challenge, but our teams have performed brilliantly due to the learnings of years past,” Steele says.
Much of the conversation at North Bay's booth stemmed from how berries fared through the cold temperatures that hit earlier this year.
“Some held up and what doesn't will have a short season,” says Chuck Yow, business development account manager for North Bay.
He says it may be a rough couple of months for blueberries, but the industry will “learn more as we go.”
A big trend, too, is the push for larger berries: the Erandy blackberry and jumbo blueberries. He says consumers like that the fruit has good Brix and are looking for those larger fruits year-round.
“As popularity grows in sales, we're still in periods of lower availability,” Yow says.
Matt Mariani, director of retail sales at Mariani Nut Co., says visitors to the company's booth talked about availability.
“The crop is above average with good supply,” he says.
He says tree nuts are experiencing robust growth in the tree nut oil market as health-conscious consumers seek plant-based and nutrient-dense ingredients.
“We're grateful for that,” he says.
Fraymil Rodriguez, chief operating officer of EXP Group, says imports of roots and tropical yams continue to grow.
“They're right in our wheelhouse,” he says, noting that as ethnic cuisines and foods become more mainstream, consumers are branching out and trying new things.
“There's room for growth,” he says.
Weather patterns have proven to be a bit of a challenge for imports, Rodriguez notes.
“It's not predictable,” he says. “It's not easy doing sales with retailers, because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.”
But he says he and the EXP Group team are planning as best as they can, and it's important to have a relationship with these retailers as well.
“We can tell retailers what's going on, and having that established relationship helps us pivot,” he says.
Weather was on the mind of visitors to the Giumarra Cos. booth, says Kellee Harris, vice president of retail merchandising services.
Harris says many conversations also focused on the strong availability of Mexican watermelons.
Cesar Pacheco, vice president of sales for Nogales at Giumarra Cos., says watermelons from the state of Nayarit will run through the end of March, and the northern crop will begin around April 10 and run through the end of June.
He says this northern crop will start a week early to catch gaps.
“It'll be a good season,” Pacheco says. “Acreage is up.”
He says conventional seedless and organic watermelon will be available in bins and cartons, as will mini watermelons and organic mini watermelons. Harris says demand for mini watermelons continues to grow.
“We're starting to see an uptick in minis,” she says.
Spencer Lightfoot, key account manager for Nature Fresh Farms, says a lot of conversations at the event were about organic produce and bringing organics into the Nature Fresh label.
And from there, Lightfoot says a lot of Nature Fresh's efforts are set around marketing.
“We're making sure our efforts with promotion align with good supply so we can promote it with consumers,” Lightfoot says.
