ST. PAUL — Several Minnesota food companies were scheduled to be featured at Natural Products Expo West, the largest tradeshow of its kind, in Anaheim, CA, March 4-6. Concerns around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) caused many businesses and buyers to withdraw their participation in the weeks leading up to the event. Finally, on March 2, the show announced that they would be postponing Expo West, leaving many businesses (and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture marketing team!) stuck in California without a tradeshow to attend.
We are monitoring the next steps from the Expo West show organizers and are working with the seventeen Minnesota companies and ten mentees that were slated to participate in the Minnesota Pavilion. We will continue to follow-up and do our best to advocate for a fair resolution to the postponement for the companies affected.
Thanks to Fresh Energy, 56 Brewing, and Bare Honey for pulling together an Expo West happy hour here in Minneapolis for those affected by the postponement! Your MDA team was able to make it back from Anaheim in time to join, and it was great to see the resilience of this community!
The MDA had intended to use the Expo West pavilion to focus on “regenerative agriculture,” which centers on increasing biodiversity, improving soil health, promoting carbon sequestration and enhancing water quality and ecosystems. You can read more about the companies and what regenerative agriculture means for Minnesota agriculture in the press release.
Despite the change in plans, we would like to extend thanks to the partners of the Minnesota Pavilion at Expo West: Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), GreaterMSP, NearestYou
Sincerely,
Brian Erickson
New Markets Program Manager
&
Ariel Kagan
Strategy & Innovation Specialist
Minnesota Department of Agriculture
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