In the first year after the signing of the U.S.-Colombian Free Trade Agreement, the head of the flower exporter group in Colombia contends the United States has come out on top. Augusto Solano, president of Asocolflores, the flower exporters group, told The Produce News, “The media in both countries has pronounced this particular free trade agreement as having been more beneficial for the United States than it has for Colombia.”

A crowd of about 1,200 area residents visited one or more of the six growers on the Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers fourth annual open house tour June 15. Kathleen W McDonough, who organized the event, told The Produce News that more than $10,000 was raised from flower, plant, and refreshment sales for five local charities, including state parks and a cancer fund.

Ecuador’s already dim chances for an extension of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which expires July 31, slid from dim to completely dark in the past 30 days, a casualty of the controversy over U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s release of classified material on government surveillance. Cut roses imported from Ecuador into this country were to begin carrying a new 6.8 percent tax as of Aug. 1.

The Expo Flora Russia show Aug. 28-31 in the All-Russian Exhibition Centre in Moscow is paired this year with the Flowers IPM show and the result-two trade fairs on the same dates in one building, covering floriculture, gardening and landscaping in one event-is expected to increase attendance for both shows.

Highlights of the July 16 Southern California Expo, biggest event of the year for the Fresh Produce & Floral Council: Some 250 exhibitors, using all available space; a crowd of 1,500 from more than 100 companies, including many store sales staff and independent retailers; the 2013 Floral Achievement Award, won by Harrison Higaki of Bay City Flower Co. in Half Moon Bay, CA; a floral design contest and a keynote address by Joe Theismann, former star quarterback in the National Football League.

Three months before the opening day for Proflora, the biennial Colombian flower show, about 155 exhibitors from 10 countries has reserved booth space at Corferias convention center in Bogota, Colombia. The show will run there Oct. 2-4 and feature 1,600 flower varieties to entice more than 1,000 buyers from 40 countries, organizers predicted.