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Produce Show Daily Saturday, October 21, 2017 1 2 The Little Potato Company: Striving to Be the Best at Creamer Potatoes Find your passion, pursue it wholeheart- edly, and you'll find success. What's true in life has also proven true for The Little Potato Company. The company's team of passionate potato professionals is focused solely on Creamer potatoes. They don't grow or sell any other products. Period. Some might even say The Little Potato Company is obsessed with Creamers. It cultivates and crafts its own unique and exclusive proprietary little potatoes with great care from seed germi- nation to order delivery. Each and every step is carefully overseen and planned to ensure the company's little Creamers are the absolute best they can be from farm to fork. It all starts with choosing the right varieties. Very few of the thousands of potato varieties that The Little Potato Company cultivates and assesses meet the team's extraordinary standards for a new Creamer. Their variety development team painstakingly chooses a new variety for its taste, visual appeal, amenability to local climates and soils, and ability to stay consistently delicious throughout the year. Once selected, Creamers are grown by farmers who have been carefully cho- sen as the best in the business. When mature, the Creamers are gently harvest- ed and immediately shipped to the com- pany's state-of-the-art processing facilities. There they are washed, sorted and packed under careful scrutiny, and shipped out again while still fresh and bursting with flavor. The team on the processing floor takes as much pride in each and every package as the grower does in nurturing every plant. The Little Potato Company's differ- entiation lies in the innovative and exten- sive ways it offers up its little Creamers. The most popular varieties include Baby Boomer, Blushing Belle, Fingerlings and Chilean Splash. These popular little Creamers are sold in eye-catching and colorful 1.5-pound gusset bags in leading retailers across North America. They're also available in popular value-added Oven|Grill and Microwave Ready kits that are convenient to prepare, with a vari- ety of natural savory seasonings and special- ty cooking trays. To ensure it can continue to meet ever- increasing demand, and exceed customer expectations, the company opened a new U.S. processing facility in DeForest, Wisconsin this year. The company has invested over $20 million in this new 130,000 square foot facility, which features new custom-built processing equipment and will ensure year-round accessibility of Creamer potatoes across North America. For more information, stop by booth #1063. After the show, visit www.little potatoes.com. Dried Fruit: What's the Scoop? By Suzanne Nelson, ScD, RD, Sports Nutritionist Call your grandparents, because raisins – and other wrinkled dried fruits – real- ly are awesome. Even though some consumers avoid dried fruit because they think it's loaded with sugar and not good for the waistline, neither is true. In fact, strategically using dried fruit in addition to fresh fruit is a smart way to meet your nutrient needs and control weight. Health Effects of Raisins May Reduce the Risk of Certain Diseases Raisins are high in fiber, potassium and other plant compounds, including antiox- idants which are linked to health benefits. Eating raisins may improve blood sugar control, lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol and decrease inflammation – all of which contribute to a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Dried and Fresh Fruit both Contain Natural Sugar As grapes dry naturally in the sun, the water content decreases as they become raisins. This process works to concen- trate both the nutrients and calories. When you consider the serving size – 1/4 cup of dried fruit and 1 cup of fresh fruit – dried fruit actu- ally contains about the same amount of calo- ries, sugar and fiber as fresh fruit. It's simply condensed into a smaller package. By weight, dried fruit contains up to 3.5 times the fiber, vita- mins and minerals compared to fresh fruit. Of course, it's always important to read the package when purchasing dried fruit. It's best to avoid those brands that contain added sugar. Know that Sun- Maid raisins are simply dried with no additives or preservatives, or extra sugar. Nothing is added, and the only thing that's taken away is water. Easy to Eat Variety is a key component of a healthy eating plan. Some days you may choose to eat your fruit dried, other times you will enjoy fresh fruit. Sometimes you may opt to have it canned – or even frozen – but that's a topic for another day! Since less than 30 percent of adults eat the recommended two servings of fruit each day, eating dried fruit – like raisins – is an easy way to fill the gap. Plus, dried fruit is versatile, portable and doesn't require refrigeration. For more information, go to www .sunmaid.com, call 559.896.8000, email info@sunmaid.com or stop by booth #2559. TropicalFruit Export S.A. Exhibits at Show An interview with Oswaldo Menéndez, General Manager, TropicalFruit Export. PSD: Is this your first PMA? OM: This is our first time as exhibitors but we´ve been coming here for many years. The U.S. was TropicalFruit Export´s first market and it remains very important to us. We are exhibiting this year because we feel prepared to take the next step and increase our volumes here and we think this is the best way to find new partners with whom we can create long term relationships. PSD: What products are you offering? OM: Mainly bananas and plantains from Ecuador. PSD: What makes your products differ- ent than other competitors? OM: I believe we are a different compa- ny that offers added value to our prod- ucts. First of all, we are Carbon Neutral Certified; that means that we measured our CO 2 footprint and we compensate our carbon emissions by sponsoring 1,000 hectares of Ecuadorian rainforest, we pay for them to remain untouched and thus our carbon foot- print is zero. All of our prod- ucts are sustainable, our bananas and plan- tains are Rainforest Alliance, as well as our baby bananas. We also have organic bananas and Fairtrade bananas in con- ventional or organic as well. We customize our products to our client´s needs, we can develop exclusive brands or work with theirs, we can pack our product specific to their needs con- cerning weight, sizes and packing types, for example. We offer solutions and not impositions, and we can deliver where they need it to. PSD: What do you feel is the future in bananas? OM: We believe it´s in what we are offering, in terms of a product that is more environ- mentally friendly and socially responsible but that can be packed in what the customer needs it to be, completely customized. Technology is also key; the consumer of the future will want fruits and groceries probably ordered online and delivered at home. We are already thinking about that and figuring out how we can form part of this new trend as well. For more information, go to www.tropical fruitexport.com or stop by booth #3875. Snoboy Delivers Consistent Quality Snoboy provides fresh fruits and vegeta- bles of the highest quality to the highly demanding retail grocery industry. Environmental variables such as inclement weather, water shortages, pest infestations and import irregularities that disrupt and corrupt the availability of top quality fruits and vegetables make con- sistent supply a top issue in the produce business. Quality and consistency have a direct bearing on the reputation and repeat business of customers. Snoboy offers a reliable and consistent supply of produce that does not sacrifice quality and is not vulnerable to seasonal scarci- ties. With Snoboy, this level of consisten- cy and reliability rests on the shoulders of quality assurance inspectors who are in the field every day examining what is available locally, nationally and interna- tionally to match up customer needs with the currently available supply. Leveraging their experience and relation- ships with their grower sources, they serve as representatives in the field to bring reliable supplies of produce to cus- tomers. If it does not meet the customers' specifications and standards, then it does not pass the Snoboy quality assurance inspection. The Snoboy team meets expectations, every time. Consistent quality, regardless of the season, combined with global purchasing power and strict adher- ence to safety standards make Amerifresh the best choice for produce needs. At Snoboy, flexibility and pur- chasing power provide the value cus- tomers rely on. Snoboy operates sales offices throughout the country to pro- vide convenience and avail- ability. Its field sales associ- ates are in direct contact with growers through procurement operations. Their proximity to the farm results in a more knowledgeable, educated sales team. Living in and around the growing area plus an export sales office in Fresno, California give the Snoboy team the market intelligence needed to forecast future markets. For more information, visit booth #1253 during Fresh Summit or visit online at www.amerifresh.com.