Minnesota State Wire

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is preparing to host ten local brands at the Natural Products Expo West tradeshow, part of its Make it Minnesota Program. This event is one of four national business-to-business tradeshows where MDA will feature "Minnesota Pavilions" in 2025. The other events include the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas, the National Restaurant Association/Taste of the States in Chicago, and the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Indianapolis.

Brands participating as part of "Team Minnesota" at Expo West 2025 include Bim Bam Boo, Field Theory Foods, Flackers, Huxley, JonnyPops, Peace Coffee, Maazah, Seven Sundays, Toom, and Wildly Organic. The annual Expo West event focuses on organic and natural consumer packaged goods (CPG) products and draws around 3,000 exhibiting companies with up to 70,000 industry attendees.

The Minnesota Pavilion will be located at Anaheim Convention Center's North Hall. Support for this initiative comes from various organizations including DEED’s Small Business and Innovation Office and AURI. Neela Mollgaard from DEED stated that they are pleased to support these businesses at Expo West.

Patrice Bailey from MDA emphasized their goal to give Minnesota food companies a competitive edge. Longtime participants like Seven Sundays and JonnyPops have expanded into national markets through their involvement with these events.

Seven Sundays Co-founder Hannah Barnstable expressed enthusiasm for participating again this year. Brian Erickson from Make it Minnesota noted that the event has become significant for the natural foods ecosystem.

Naturally Minnesota and MDA will also host the sixth-annual Minnesota Mingle at Expo West on March 5th. Jason Robinson from AURI highlighted their role as a resource for local businesses.