2025 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention

2025 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention

Opens January 28 at the Hershey Lodge

Hershey, PA (September 2024) – The 2025 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention will be held at the Hershey Lodge January 28-30. Multiple concurrent educational sessions will be featured all three days along with a large industry trade show. A farm market bus tour and several pre-convention workshops will be offered on January 27, 2025.

Over 2,200 fruit, vegetable, and berry growers as well as other industry personnel from throughout the mid-Atlantic region and beyond gather each year for what has become one of the premier grower meetings on the East Coast. The 2025 Convention will be the 48th annual gathering of growers at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA.

Plans are being made to offer exceptional educational sessions on a full range of topics in tree fruit, vegetable, small fruit, and potato production plus retail and wholesale marketing. Greenhouse ornamental and cut flower sessions plus sessions on urban agriculture will be included as well. Also offered will be special sessions presented in Spanish for Spanish-speaking industry members. A more detailed schedule with topics and speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The day before the main convention opens, growers can choose between a bus tour of farm operatons in Lancaster County or several different workshops. The workshops include Microgreens, Apple Tree Decline Summit, Pennsylvania Pesticide Applicator License Training, Farm Transition, and a YGA offsite event.

Sessions on the Wednesday include greenhouse floriculture, tomatoes, organic, root crops, small fruit, tree fruit, greenhouse vegetables, peppers/eggplants, stone fruit, agritourism, marketing sessions on consumer & food trends, POS excellence, and Facebook, several labor/farm management sessions, and sessions for Spanish speaking workers in the fruit and vegetable industries.

The final day of the convention focuses on high tunnel, cut flowers, potatoes, sweet corn, small fruit, stone fruit, tree fruit, general vegetables labor/farm management, marketing technology and tools, digital and social media marketing, and additional labor/farm management sessions.

The convention has been jointly sponsored by the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association, the Maryland State Horticultural Society, and the New Jersey State Horticultural Society since 1978. In 2014, the Virginia State Horticultural Society joined the convention. Extension personnel from Penn State, University of Maryland, Rutgers, and Virginia Tech assist with organizing the three days of educational sessions.

The Trade Show will be in Great American Hall and Aztec Room with additional booths located in the Confection Lobby. Specialized horticultural equipment, farm market merchandise, and packaging will all be on display along with information on the latest seed varieties, fruit varieties, pesticides and other supplies and services for the commercial grower.

Many pesticide applicator update training credits will be available to Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia growers attending the sessions. Arrangements are also being made to offer respirator-fits tests for pesticide applicators. The program covers nearly every aspect of fruit, vegetable, potato and berry production. Commercial growers should not pass up this terrific educational opportunity, or the oportutnity to networkwith fellow growers and other in the industry.

The eighteenth annual Mid-Atlantic Cider Contest will be conducted during the convention to determine the best tasting cider produced in the region. On January 28, fruit and vegetable growers will gather for the annual Fruit and Vegetable Growers Banquet which will include awards and recognitions. The evening of January 29 will feature an ice cream social in the evening in addition to a reception for apple growers.

Registration is required for attendance at the Convention trade show and/or educational sessions. Registration with any of the five sponsoring organizations provides attendance to any of the sessions. The Monday workshops, bus tour, and meals are separate registration fees.

For questions regarding the fruit programs, contact Maureen Irvin at (717) 677-4184 or email at [email protected]. For questions regarding the vegetable programs, contact Tammy Linn at (717) 973-5915 or [email protected].

Host or Publisher State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania