The PMA annual conference and exhibition enhanced its reputation as the premier source for global networking by attracting more than 14,500 industry leaders to Orlando this week.
The event, at the city's Orange County Convention Centre for the first time, included several educational formats, including an International Trade Conference, FreshTech technology conference and the sell-out Fresh Summit exhibition, which saw more than 700 exhibitors from 24 countries cover 558,000 square feet of floor space.
Several new initiatives and programmes were launched at the event by PMA, including the Pack Family/PMA Career Pathways Fund. This new, privately funded programme has been designed to further enhance the professionalism of the industry by providing college students studying agriculture or marketing with the opportunity to attend PMA's Fresh Summit each year.
Incoming PMA chairman Stepen Barnard, president and ceo of Californian avocado marketer Mission Produce, said: "We must continue to focus on what PMA does best and we will not be everything to everybody. This includes attracting young people of talent into this industry.
"Produce is not viewed as an industry of choice and neither has it been systematically promoted as such by us. The Career Pathways Fund will choose students and faculties and cover the expenses for two dozen students to attend Fresh Summit every year. We are looking around for the next generation of industry leaders and at PMA they have the best and brightest in the industry to learn from."
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