Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NECC063 meeting is typically composed of two major segments. The first includes one or more formal paper presentation sessions by meeting participants. At the June 22, 2007 meeting, the paper session included four formal presentations and a roundtable discussion around the theme of "Managerial and Economic Issues in Commodity Promotion." The second session is a business meeting which focuses on the status of proceedings from previous meetings, plans for future meetings, and discussions relating to the functioning of the committee including elections of officers, adminsitrative reports, etc. A copy of the minutes of the business meeting session are attached.

The theme of the Spring 2007 NECC063 semi-annual meeting was "Managerial and Economic Issues in Commodity Promotion." The meeting was held in conjunction with the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association's 17th Annual World Forum and Symposium held in Parma, Italy. As a result, the papers presented by committee members received significant international exposure. Four topics were presented: use of local claims on food labels; category management in fresh produce; customer branding of commodity products; and commodity promotion policy in the U.S. Farm Bill. The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion of current issues in commodity promotion. The information developed by NECC063 participants is widely used by both private and public decision makers and university researchers.