PMA

PMA. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Each year the Producer Marketing Association or PMA pulls together the best of the industry to display and promote ag products from all over the world. Kevin Moffitt with Pear Bureau Northwest is just back from the most recent event.

MOFFITT: It was a record breaking show. They are reporting that we had 21-thousand people attending PMA and that was from 61 different countries so it’s becoming quite an international show. But for us we had a booth as we have for, I don’t know, 40 some years there at PMA and I personally have been attending PMA since 1981 with just a few years that I missed and I truly believe this was the busiest PMA I’ve ever seen.

Moffitt says they changed up the format of the show a bit this year but they managed to make a lot of contacts.

MOFFITT: We stayed very busy talking to retailers from around the U.S. Buyers from overseas, retailers from overseas. We had meetings with our own shipper/sales groups to help coordinate our programs, I saw the USDA people there, I mean it was - it’s a beautiful show. It’s a one-stop shop for us to see so many different people and this one was one of the most successful we’ve had.

He says that shows like this are extremely important for the pear industry to meet and promote the fruit from here in the northwest to an international audience.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.