Organic Produce Summit 2017 opening reception

: July 13, 2017

Retailers, growers, distributors and processors gathered in Monterey, CA, Wednesday, July 12 as the 2017 Organic Produce Summit kicked off with its opening reception. The day-and-a-half-long OPS continued July 13 with a series of educational sessions and keynote speakers covering a wide range of topics related to the booming organic produce category. After a lunch break, the OPS moved to the sold-out exhibition floor, featuring a wide array of the world’s largest organic fresh produce companies.

At the OPS opening reception were Karen Caplan of Frieda’s, Kevin Coupe of Morning News Beat and Marliese Ward of Jacobs Farm Del Cabo.

Samantha Barthel, Lorenz Hartmann de Barros and Melissa Hartmann de Barros of HLB Specialties at the OPS opening reception.

Lou Alex of Peirone Produce, Brett Johnson of Robinson Fresh and Kevin Crossgrove of Foxy Organic.

Kristina Lorusso of Giumarra, Cherie France of Homegrown Organic Farms and Kelle Harris of Giumarra.

Cindy Plummer and Karen Hearn of Grapes from California.

Lisa Kacur and Derrick Rayner of EarthFresh with Mike Boyle and Kristi Yoder of Organically Grown Co.

Bob Borda of Cal-Organic Farms with Ippolito International representatives Ron Mondo and Steve Dimen.

Brian Arbini of Lipman Family Farms, Greg Corrigan of Raley’s and Dave Moore of Earthbound Farm.

Representing SunFed were Matt Mandel and Craig Slate with Tonya Slate.

Cassie Derdivanis and Jill Tebbe of OPS.

OPS volunteers Vicky Duke, Janet Rodgers and Kathy Giger with Janae Riner of Judel Marketing International Inc. and Susan Reimer-Sifford of CC Kitchens.

Chuck Sinks and Ryan Easter of Sage Fruit Co.

Jillian McCarthy of Tessemae’s LLC and Cate Seeley, an OPS volunteer, with Heather Kibble and Sam Mora of Sakata.

Sybil Chapple of Tanimura & Antle, Maria Vasquez of Robinson Fresh and Amy Pemberton of Tanimura & Antle.

Nicholas Pasculli of Organic Produce Summit with Gabe Rodriguez and Sam Spadoni of TMD Creative.

Steve LeFevre of Wholesum Harvest and Frank Camera of Sunfed.

Shannon Boase of CKF Inc. with Highline Mushrooms representatives Rick Watters and Sabrina Pokomandy.

Marliese Ward and Chris Miele of Jacobs Farm.

John Schleicher of S. Strock & Co. Inc. and Dana Davis of the Organic Produce Network.

Mayra Velazquez de Leon, Manuel Velazquez de Leon and Marco Garcia of Organics Unlimited.