Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/835419
Produce Show Daily Thursday, June 15, 2017 1 0 COLORADO'S PRODUCE AS DIVERSE AS ITS LANDSCAPE When most people hear "Colorado," they think of mountains – but this state, famous for skiing and snow-capped peaks, also features diverse areas for growing fruits and vegetables. Warm days, cool nights, high plains and broad, dry plateaus give way to some of the country's sweetest, juiciest fruit and crispest, most flavorful vegetables. From peaches, apples and melons to sweet corn, chiles, potatoes and lettuce, Colorado grows a wide array of produce. The Arkansas Valley in central/southeast Colorado extends from Pueblo County on the west to the Kansas border. Farms there grow melons, toma- toes, cucumbers and peppers. Melons grow especially well in the Arkansas Valley because of the blazing hot days and crisp, cool nights, which lock in the sweet, juicy taste of summer. The Rocky Ford Growers Association represents melons grown in a defined region within the Arkansas Valley, held to the highest quality and food safety stan- dards. Rocky Ford continues to be known as the "Melon Capital of the World." The region's climate and soils are also particularly suited to growing chile peppers, producing a thick, meaty chile, great for roasting. The recently-estab- lished Pueblo Chile Growers Association promotes the Pueblo Chile, the most famous chile pepper in the region. The San Luis Valley, nestled between the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains, is home to 90 percent of Colorado's potato production. About 20 major potato warehouses pack and ship potatoes to consumers throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Using ultra-modern equipment, potatoes can go from storage to warehouse to truck any day during the shipping season without exposure to the outdoors. Farmers in the San Luis Valley also grow let- tuce, romaine, spinach and organic carrots. Colorado's Grand Valley is on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains, west of the Continental Divide. The Grand River area is a major fruit-growing area with many orchards. Peaches are the primary crop, with apples, pears, cher- ries, apricots, pears and wine grapes also available. The area is one of Colorado's American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), supplying 85 to 95 percent of the wine grapes to more than 100 Colorado winer- ies. Montrose and Delta counties, also on the Western Slope, produce more than 133 million pounds of sweet corn annual- ly. The unique growing climate and soils combined with innovative farming prac- tices ensure consistent quality and supe- rior taste. Farmers in this area also grow onions, squash and wine grapes. The West Elks AVA boasts some of the highest- elevation vineyards in North America. The Eastern Plains, widely thought of as cowboy country for the large ranch- es and wheat and corn farms, are also are home to farmers growing vegetables and pulses such as potatoes, leafy greens, car- rots, onions, cabbage, broccoli, sweet corn and dry beans. The Eastern Plains crops benefit from Colorado's 300-plus days of sunshine a year. All of Colorado's produce areas are centrally located and close to major U.S. and export markets. For more information, go to www .coloradoagriculture.com and www .coloradoproduce.org or call 303.869.9000. SAN ANTONIO HAS A NEW WHOLESALE PRODUCE HUB The city of San Antonio, Texas is boom- ing, and the new San Antonio Wholesale Produce Market is well positioned to make the most of the produce industry's next likely hotspot. San Antonio serves as a perfect regional hub for the distribution of fresh produce to all over Texas and the central east United States due to its geographic location in relation to Mexico, where most produce imports come from, as well as its highway connectivity that facili- tates the consolidation and distribution of northbound and southbound cargo. San Antonio finds itself the 7th largest growing city in the U.S. Despite being a neighbor to Austin and Houston, San Antonio has a vastly underserved metropolitan market, with demand for fresh produce fueled by the hospitality industry and food-related businesses that serve the more than 26 million tourists the city receives each year. The new San Antonio Wholesale Produce Market allows pro- duce importers, wholesalers and merchants to be closer to the biggest consumer markets in Texas besides San Antonio, such as Houston, Austin and Dallas. Additionally, and dif- ferent from the current biggest produce hubs that are McAllen, Texas and Nogales, Arizona, produce imports from Mexico can reach San Antonio through a variety of ports of entry such as McAllen-Pharr, Laredo, Eagle Pass and even El Paso, Texas. As highway infrastructure improves in Mexico, con- nectivity of main produce production regions with these ports of entry in Texas increase. The new San Antonio Wholesale Produce Market is strategically located right on South East Loop 410 that connects all of the city and provides easy access to Interstate 10 to get to Houston, Interstate 35 coming from Laredo, passing through Austin and Dallas all the way to Canada, and Interstate 37 coming from McAllen- Pharr and Corpus Christi. To learn more about leasing opportuni- ties, contact Luz Moreno at 210.865.0683 or go to www.sawpm.com/en. DAUMAR LEADS IN PACKAGING PRODUCTS DAUMAR is a leading manufacturer and distributor to the fresh produce industry, providing packaging materials, knitted netting, extruded netting, printed labels, printed films and automatic bagging machinery. With three distribution and service warehouses around the U.S.A., the company has customers covered with quick delivery and machine service. DAUMAR understands that its cus- tomers' bagging machines are critical to their business success. Because of this, unparalleled technical training, superb support and spare parts availability is immediately available for all DAUMAR products. The company takes pride in its D- Pack, a stand-up bag that offers great publicity and a premium appearance. It also has an E-Pack option, with the light- est and most economical net bag for the fresh produce industry. The E-Pack is made of ultralight knitted netting and a printed film that seals both ends of the bag and acts as a carry handle. Other packaging products are the Header Bag, which is made out of knitted or extruded netting with a sealed card on one side and a Kwik Lok closure on the other side. The Clipped Net Bag, the traditional low cost bag, has a label and two metal clips. The Raschel bag is an inexpensive way to move large bags or sacks, with weights ranging from 10 pounds up to 50 pounds. DAUMAR is launching a new bag- ging machine, CB-148. The CB-148 is the fastest and most flexible D-Pack bag- ging machine on the market. DAUMAR manufactures the bag- ging machinery and all of the correspon- ding bagging materials needed to make the bags on the bagging machinery, such as knitted netting, extruded netting, labels and printed films. DAUMAR's customers in the fresh produce industry consist of growers, packers and repack- ers. The company takes pride in provid- ing maximum machine uptime because it is an expert in determining which materi- als work best for each customer's appli- cation. In addition, the company also stocks bagging materials and has service technicians residing in close proximity to customers, offering a quick response to the customer's needs. For more information, go to www .daumar.com or call 305.234.5668. USA ONIONS AMPS UP SOCIAL MEDIA The Idaho and Eastern Oregon Committee has an increased focus on its social media outreach. New images, recipes and videos are all part of the cam- paign designed to engage consumers and buyers. According to statistics published by Brand Watch magazine, as of July 2015, the Internet has 3.17 billion users and there are 2.3 billion active social media users. Ninety-one percent of retail brands use two or more social media channels, and internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts. Social media users have risen by 176 million in the last year, and 1 million new active mobile social users are added every day – all rea- sons for the Committee to direct its focus to social media promotion. Last year, the Committee used social posts and articles to repost to followers. Though effective, it was determined that Committee-developed creative may be more effective to attract followers. This year, the Committee has created original videos and images that accompany infor- mation about the onions and the region. The Committee has significantly increased its presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube, going from an average of one post on each site to three posts on each site. Since the Committee reduced it promotion budget in 2015, connecting with consumers and buyers through social media outlets has proven to be critical to sustaining the Committee's promotion efforts. Some of the fun and engaging posts and tweets include all new recipes with videos and new images, new field video that showcases all facets of the growing process from planting to harvest. The Committee is also using its beloved mas- cot, Jumbo, to help engage followers. The Committee has adopted the hashtag #BigOnionLove as part of its social media messaging. To Committee members, this hashtag tells the whole story – it is with big commit- ment and dedication growers and ship- pers from Idaho and Eastern Oregon pro- duce and ship the onions America loves! For more information, go to www .usaonions.com.