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2021 AFB opening
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Registration is FREE!

Please use the links below to register for each session.

Note that session times are Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Monday, September 20, 2021

10:00 a.m. Traceability in the Food Chain: How it Works
Speakers:
--Conchita Espinosa, Founder, FruVeg Marketing, Inc.
--Madelin Corrales, Food Safety Coordinator, FruVeg Marketing, Inc.

Traceablity spot

Conchita Espinosa –Chediak
Founder & CEO
Fru Veg Marketing

Fru-veg Marketing is one of the nations' leading importers and distributors of fine produce such as apples, asparagus, cherries ,berries, clementines, haricot vert/mini vegetables and organic fruits and vegetables. Espinosa founded Fru-Veg Marketing in 1988. Working with a reduced staff and headquartered at the Port of Miami, Fru-Veg began to grow exponentially, cultivating lasting relationships with leading growers from Central and South America, extending to imports from Spain. Several times throughout the year, she visits growers, building new partnerships, reinforcing old ones and exploring new products. Espinosa maintains a growing client base in North America to include the major supermarket chains in the US and Canada. Today Fru-Veg owns state of the art cooling facilities in Doral, alongside Miami International Airport, and maintains a satellite office in Philadelphia and Chile. In 1994 Fru-Veg Marketing was named one of the top 250 Hispanic-owned companies in the US by Hispanic Business magazine. In 2001 Espinosa was a finalist for the publication's Entrepreneur of the Year award. Today, Fru-Veg Marketing is ranked at 150 in the Hispanic Business 500. Espinosa earned her B.S. in History at Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois, returning to South Florida for her M.S.W. in Social Work and Public Administration at Barry University.

Madelin Corrales
COO and Food Safety Coordinator
Fru-Veg Marketing, Inc.

Madelin Corrales has had over 25 years of experience in operations and supply chain management in a variety of organizations ranging from manufacturing to retail. For the past 10 years, she has served as COO and Food Safety Coordinator of Fru-Veg Marketing, Inc., one of the nation's leading importers of fine produce from the best growers of Europe and Latin America. In this capacity she has dealt with the food safety aspect of the organization which allows the firm to document and/or locate a product through a series of stages and operations from primary production to consumption. This improves the ability to recall a product is necessary and prevent unsafe products from reaching the customers. Corrales is a cum laude graduate of the MBA program at St. Thomas University.

2:00 p.m. The Impact of COVID-19 on the Food Supply Chain and Effects on Consumer Habits
Speaker:
Gus Calabro, Executive Director, ABASTO

Impact of Covid on food supply chain

Gus Calabro
Executive Director
ABASTO

Abasto Media is an independent food and beverage trade publication focused on supporting growth-oriented Hispanic and traditional retailers by providing the latest news and information on the food and beverage industry. Calabro has over twenty-five years of experience in marketing functions, communications strategies, new business development, consumer products market sectors and in bringing meaningful product to market. He is a team-oriented leader with a successful track record of sales and enjoys leading diverse teams that create disruptive products into established markets, leading companies from pre-revenue to market leadership, building sales and support teams, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and business development. Calabro is a board member of the Latino Food Industry Association, and is routinely a key-note speaker at different food and beverage events.

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

10:00 a.m. Consumer Trends in Latin America
Speaker:
John Price, President, American Market Intelligence

Consumer Trends in LATAM

John Price
Managing Director
Americas Market Intelligence

John Price has advised more than 30 of the global 100 firms on their business strategies and market intelligence needs in Latin America. His consulting career began in Mexico where he founded InfoAmericas, becoming the largest independent market intelligence firm in Latin America. The firm was sold in 2007 to Kroll, the world’s largest corporate investigations firm, and in 2011, he left Kroll and founded Americas Market Intelligence with offices in Miami, Mexico City, San Francisco and affiliate offices in Buenos Aires, Medellin, Sao Paulo, and Santiago. He has published over 100 articles on Latin American business trends and maintains a column in the region’s largest circulated English language magazine, Latin Trade. In 2007, he co-wrote and co-edited “Can Latin America Compete?” which was published by Palgrave. Price teaches as an adjunct professor at Florida International University and a guest lecturer at the University of Miami. He is a former board member of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, a LatAm orphanage network and an active board member of the Canadian Council of the Americas. He is also a keen supporter of El Techo, an innovative charity that builds sturdy homes in Latin American slums. Price is a BComm graduate (1988) from Queen’s University in Canada.

2:00 p.m. Customs Compliance for Food & Beverage Importers—Maximizing Efficiencies, Minimizing Costs
Speaker:
Deb Stern, Customs and Trade Attorney, Sandler Travis Rosenberg & Rosenberg, P.A.

Customs Compliance for Food and Beverage

Deborah B. Stern
Customs and Trade Attorney
Sandler Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.

Deborah Stern is a Member in the Import and Export Practice Group of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., resident in the Miami office. She advises domestic and multinational clients on both U.S. and foreign customs compliance and other trade and concentrates her practice in traditional customs areas, such as tariff classification, seizures and penalties, country of origin marking, valuation, trademark infringement, broker compliance, bonded warehouses, government procurement, trade preference programs and free trade agreements, as well as the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System. Prior to joining STR, Stern spent five years with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C., where she authored nationally binding interpretive rulings and agency determinations on tariff classification. Stern holds a B.A. from Florida State University and a J.D. from FSU’s School of Law, graduating with cum laude distinction for both degrees. She previously served in the international law section of the American Bar Association, the international section of the Florida Bar Association, and Customs Lawyers Association.

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

10:00 a.m. The Emergence of Technology in Retail: The Omnichannel Solution
Speaker:
Gus Calabro, Executive Director, ABASTO

The Omnichannel Solution

Gus Calabro
Executive Director
ABASTO

Abasto Media is an independent food and beverage trade publication focused on supporting growth-oriented Hispanic and traditional retailers by providing the latest news and information on the food and beverage industry. Calabro has over twenty-five years of experience in marketing functions, communications strategies, new business development, consumer products market sectors and in bringing meaningful product to market. He is a team-oriented leader with a successful track record of sales and enjoys leading diverse teams that create disruptive products into established markets, leading companies from pre-revenue to market leadership, building sales and support teams, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and business development. Calabro is a board member of the Latino Food Industry Association, and is routinely a key-note speaker at different food and beverage events.

2:00 p.m. 10 Pasos para Exportar Alimentos a los EEUU y Cumplir con las Normas de la FDA (SPANISH/Español)
Speaker:
Facundo Carranza, Senior Regulatory Advisor, Registrar Corp.

10 Pasos para exportar

Facundo Ozan Carranza
Senior Regulatory Advisor
Registrar Corp.

Facundo Ozan Carranza posee una Licenciatura en Administración de Empresas de la Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales (UCES) de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. También tiene el título de Técnico Superior en Comercio Internacional de la Fundación de Altos Estudios en Ciencias Comerciales (FAECC), el Lic. Ozan Carranza trabajó en la industria alimentaria más de 20 años, con especialización en pescados y marisco, cereales, especias, y también vino. Se unió a Registrar Corp en el año 2003, y desde entonces ha ayudado a miles de clientes de la industria alimenticia en las regulaciones de la FDA. Las áreas de especialización del Lic. Ozan Carranza incluyen BTA (Ley contra el Bioterrorismo), FSMA (Ley de Modernización de Seguridad Alimentaria), FCE (Food Caín Establecimiento), Revisión y Adecuación de Etiquetas (Label Review), Alertas de Importación ("DWPE") y la asistencia de detención. Registrar Corp provee servicios de cumplimiento para los fabricantes, exportadores e importadores en las regulaciones de la Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Thursday, September 23, 2021l

10:00 a.m. Acceso al Mercado Estadounidense (SPANISH/Español)
Speaker:
Juan Carlos Pereira, Executive Director, Spain-US Chamber of Commerce

Accede al Mercado EEUA

Juan Carlos Pereira
Executive Director
Spain-US Chamber of Commerce*

In his capacity as executive director at the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce, Juan Carlos Pereira covers the entire US, coordinating the various programs that the chamber offers to its members and helping them doing business and achieving their goals in the US market. Previously, Pereira was EVP international business development at BW Market, a US consultancy firm, Vice President of Alhambra Guitars USA and before that US Country Manager for a European manufacturer of power electronics equipment. He began his career as a trade specialist with Extenda, the Trade Promotion Agency of Andalusia, Spain.

*The Spain-US Chamber of Commerce in Florida is an official binational chamber of commerce with more than 400 members, that serves as a private non-profit organization that fosters business and commercial relations between the United States, Spain and LATAM. The Spain-US Chamber of Commerce offers consulting services to companies who are recent arrivals to the US market as well as already established companies so they can develop their businesses with the highest guarantee of success.

Friday, September 24, 2021

10:00 a.m. Product Admissibility: Compliance for Food & Beverage Importers---From “Red Lane to “Green Lane”
Speaker:
Lenny Feldman, Member, Sandler Travis & Rosenberg & Rosenberg, P.A.

Product admissibility

Lenny Feldman
Member
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.

Lenny Feldman is a Member of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., resident in the Miami office and a member of the firm's Operating Committee. He currently co-chairs the twenty-member U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee providing strategic recommendations directly to CBP and the departments of Homeland Security and the Treasury on issues such as e-commerce policy, trade partnership programs, enforcement and facilitation mechanisms, and regulatory reform. He resolves complex issues pertaining to import classification compliance and tariff engineering; valuation requirements and first sale duty savings; seizure and penalty prior disclosures and mitigation petitions; antidumping and countervailing duty administration and enforcement; trade preference qualification for NAFTA/USMCA, CAFTA-DR, and other programs; and CTPAT/border security certification, validation, and suspension/revocation support. He assists clients with import compliance and enforcement before CBP, DHS, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; export compliance and enforcement before the Census Bureau, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and product safety and admissibility before the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to joining ST&R, Feldman was a senior attorney with the U.S. Customs Service (now CBP) in Washington, D.C. He was a negotiator of NAFTA and also consulted with foreign customs and trade officials throughout South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The vice president of the United States, the World Customs Organization, and numerous countries recognized him for these efforts. Feldman holds a B.A. from Emory University and a J.D. from the University of Florida.