AFFI-CON 2017: Sweet Suite
It’s hard to believe that almost two weeks have passed since this year’s AFFI-CON wrapped up in beautiful San Diego California. With San Diego Bay and Coronado Island serving as a dazzling backdrop for the 2017 event, VLM’s sweet suite was a buzz with business partner meetings and visits from friends old and new. From AFFI-CON’s official events; council sessions; education discussions as well as the convention’s renowned “speed dating” business meetings, VLM’s team of 6 logged plenty of miles travelling across, up, down and throughout San Diego’s Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel.
The whirlwind that is AFFI-CON provides enormous opportunities for buyers and sellers alike and success requires as much post-convention processing as it does pre-convention preparation with none of this being possible without the exceptional work of the whole AFFI team. Why not let them know how much you appreciated their efforts next time you speak with the folks you deal with AFFI?
Questions about FSMA
Following the success of VLM’s FSMA presentation at AFFI-CON 2016, we were invited back and it was an honor to have spoken at AFFI-CON again as part of a FSMA presentation alongside Domenic Veneziano, the FDA’s former Director of Import Operations and Enforcement and a key FSMA leader.
Domenic’s presentation touched upon the fresh produce rule; the preventive controls rule for domestic and foreign food processors as well as details of the Foreign Supplier Verification Program or FSVP rule. Our audience was predominantly made up of processors and Domenic’s observation that FDA plans to start inspecting importers in 2017 came as a surprise to some. The focus of my presentation was on placing the current regulations in context as well as with an eye on trying to discern which way things may head under the Trump administration.
While the current regulatory freeze and federal budgetary matters would seem to support an implementation delay of some FSMA regulations, the current administration’s view of imports in general and reports of food safety potentially being used as a bargaining chip in trade agreements would seem to indicate that food imports are not likely to receive a “lighter touch” under President Trump. In my very humble opinion, barring any major announcements, it would be imprudent to not abide by FSMA’s existing import compliance deadlines which are coming at our industry very quickly. With that in mind I was surprised at just hot the topic of importer identification was to our audience with some telling me their main reason for attending our presentations was to get a better handle on just who the FSVP Importer is and this with only weeks to go before the May 27 2017 deadline requiring the FSVP importer to be identified at time entry with their company name, U.S. address, DUNS number and all.
NEW is Back
While our industry has valid concerns about the current and emerging regulatory environment in which we will all operate, there was plenty of excitement about product innovation. From retailers looking to realign their SKUs and foodservice operators wanting to draw on the latest trends, we had plenty of exciting discussions about VLM’s range of innovative products and product ideas.
From cauliflower to broccoli, carrots and customized blends, all that is riced is hot while 4-color cauliflower and new approaches to mixed vegetables provide interesting avenues to extend and update existing product lines. Having engineered a different approach to offering frozen acai as well as successfully bringing frozen dragon fruit to market, VLM’s innovation team is just as fluent in frozen fruit products as they are frozen vegetables. With this in mind, samples of our quinoa encrusted frozen avocado bites were exceptionally well received and something for folks to keep an eye out for.
Until AFFI-CON 2018, which being in Las Vegas will no doubt prove “interesting”, from myself and the whole VLM team we hope your AFFI-CON 2017 was as exceptional as ours.
