Produce July 2022_io

cover story

22 ALL-DAY PRODUCECENTRIC DINING

Americans’ everyday embrace of eating out and the foodservice sector’s rebound open the door to putting more fresh produce on the menu.

28 PIZZA IS THE PERFECT PLATFORM FOR PRODUCE

Fresh produce toppings can also help pizza operators stand out.

94 EVERYONE'S SCRAMBLING TO SECURE PALLETS AND KEEP SUPPLY CHAIN MOVING

The pallet industry is adjusting to the new normal of an always changing business environment.

special features

14 FROM THE PAGES OF THE PERISHABLEPUNDIT.COM What Are Grape Innovations Worth?

16 IFPA FOODSERVICE CONFERENCE BOOTH REVIEW

RISING RETAILER

20 FRESH, QUALITY PRODUCE AT HEART OF HIGHLAND PARK MARKET

‘Produce dictates what kind of store you are,’ says Highland Park Market Produce Director Brian Gibbons.

NY REGIONAL MARKET PROFILE

35 THE BRONX'S VITAL GROWTH ENGINE

Ocean

GRAPEVINE

Reform

10 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE

Regional

in the

departments

MERCHANDISING

31 SIX STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL GARLIC SALES

By paying a little extra attention to garlic, produce departments can move more product.

ORGANIC MARKETING

87 FIVE WAYS TO SELL MORE ORGANIC CITRUS

The foundation items — oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, lemons and limes — have the most tonnage and largest volume.

PROCUREMENT

91 SWEET TREAT: SHOPPERS CLAMOR FOR PEACHES

Even when summer wanes, retailers can still satisfy consumers who love peaches.

DRIED FRUITS & NUTS

97 AN APPETITE FOR SNACK SALES

Dried apricot suppliers are looking to win this season, with merchandising near produce taking center stage.

Produce Industry

11 COMMENTS AND ANALYSIS

Geography Just One Key Variable For Marketing Produce

102 BLAST FROM THE PAST

Ocean Mist Farms’ Standard of Excellence Took Root Nearly 100 Years Ago

102 INFORMATION SHOWCASE

With potential infusion of funds from the city and state, the Hunts Point Market and its merchants are primed for a future of renewal.

68 NEW YORK DISTRIBUTORS GET THE JOB DONE WHILE TRANSFORMING BUSINESS

Standing on recognized expertise, these off-market companies are reimagining and investing in the future.

RETAIL PROFILE

82 GOURMET GARAGE ELEVATES THE EVERYDAY

With four NYC stores, this retailer’s flexibility allows it to keep the freshest possible produce on shelves.

commentary

12 THE FRUITS OF THOUGHT Restaurant Dining – Antidote to Heal A Less Civil Nation

98 RETAIL PERSPECTIVE Summer is Best Time to Rev Up Your Retail Operation

99 WHOLESALE MARKET Foodservice Customers Need Partners, Not Vendors

100 EUROPEAN MARKET UK Campaign Boosted (And Sustained) Veg Consumption

101 PRODUCE ON THE MENU

Celebrating the Impact of California’s Farm to School Program

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PRODUCE BUSINESS, P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425

PRODUCE BUSINESS (ISSN 0886-5663) is published monthly for $58.40 per year by Phoenix Media Network, Inc., P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425

ALYSSA MCCARTER Store Worker

Kodiak DeCA Commissary

Kodiak, AK

As a military spouse, Alyssa McCarter has worked in a wide range of jobs as she has moved around the country with her husband. Her current gig as a store worker at Kodiak DeCA Commissary in Kodiak, AK, has brought her into occasional contact with the retailer’s produce department.

“I’ve worked in the commissary for just under two years,” McCarter says. “I’m a mili tary wife, so I have an interesting work back ground. I’ve done everything from making pizza by hand, working in church daycare centers and many other things traveling with my husband.”

McCarter particularly enjoys familiarizing herself with the store’s produce department.

“I like getting to see different produce items, especially in the summer,” she says. “For example, we recently got in a Picasso melon, and I didn’t know this was a thing, so that was interesting.”

On the store’s slower days, McCarter and

the head of the produce department like to read Produce Business together.

“The person in charge of produce and I go over the magazine, as I love learning facts and random knowledge. It’s fun to sit down and read through the magazine,” she says.

McCarter would eventually love to end up in one of the lower 48 states where there are more fresh product options, as it takes Alaska two weeks to get produce shipments in.

“This could happen if we end up back in California or in Virginia, where there are quite a few strawberry fields,” she says. “I’d love to be involved in produce and learning more about it.”

This was McCarter’s first time taking the Produce Business quiz, which her co-worker encouraged her to try. As this month’s winner, she will receive a $200 Amazon gift card.

How To Win! To win the Produce Business Quiz, the first thing you must do is read through the ar ticles and advertisements in the print or digital issue to find the answers. Fill in the blanks corre sponding to the questions below, scan and send your answers to the address listed on the coupon. If you wish to fill out the questions online, please go to: www.producebusiness.com/quiz. The winner will be chosen by drawing from the responses received before the publication of our SEPTEMBER 2022 issue of Produce Business.

WIN A $200 AMAZON GIFT CARD

Is there anyone in the industry who wouldn’t want $200 to buy something fun on Amazon? Or better yet… pass the card on to someone in need and make the world a better place!

QUESTIONS FOR THE JULY ISSUE

1) “Packing Sunshine for the World to Enjoy” is the headline describing which company’s citrus packaging?

2) What is the telephone number for Fierman Produce Exchange?

3) What is the website address for Exp. Group LLC

4) What is the Facebook address for the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council

5) In which city and state is Highland Park Market located?

6) In what year was the Allen Lund Company launched?

issue

or scans of this form

send answers to one of the following:

JULY 2022 • VOL. 38 • NO. 7 • $9.90

P.O. Box 810425 • Boca Raton • FL 33481-0425 Phone: 561-994-1118 • Fax: 561-994-1610 info@producebusiness.com

President & editor in-Chief James E. Prevor JPrevor@phoenixmedianet.com

Publisher/editorial direCtor Ken Whitacre

KWhitacre@phoenixmedianet.com

exeCutive assistant Lori Schlossberg LSchlossberg@phoenixmedianet.com

ProduCebusinessuK.Com editor Chris Burt CBurt@phoenixmedianet.com

sPeCial ProjeCts editor

Mira Slott MSlott@phoenixmedianet.com

ProduCtion direCtor Diana Levine DLevine@phoenixmedianet.com

ProduCtion dePartment

Jackie Tucker

Contributing Writers

Carol M. Bareuther, Linda Brockman, Susan Crowell, Mike Duff, Bob Johnson, Steven Loeb, Gill McShane, Tad Thompson, Jodean Robbins, Jordyn White

advertising John Grecco

JGrecco@phoenixmedianet.com

Steve Jacobs

SJacobs@phoenixmedianet.com Sandy Lee Sandypnews@aol.com Ellen Rosenthal

ERosenthal@phoenixmedianet.com

direCtory shoWCase manager Zachary Kugel

ZKugel@phoenixmedianet.com

Send insertion orders, payments, press releases, photos, letters to the editor, etc., to Produce Business, P.O. Box 810425 Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425 PH: 561.994.1118 FAX: 561.994.1610

Produce Business is published by Phoenix Media Network, Inc. James E. Prevor, Chairman of the Board P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425. Entire contents © Copyright 2022 Phoenix Media Network, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Publication Agreement No. 40047928

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snail mail to: JULY PB QUIZ

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA) was signed into law by President Biden on June 16, 2022. IFPA President and CEO Cathy Burns was honored to be invited to celebrate the work of our volunteers and IFPA team at the bill signing.

OSRA, a bipartisan, bicameral bill cosponsored by U.S. Reps. John Garamendi, D-CA, and Dusty Johnson, R-SD, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, and John Thune, R-SD, was first introduced in August 2021. The bill endured numerous changes and iterations before being passed in its final form unanimously in the Senate and by a resounding 364-40 votes. On March 15, IFPA submitted a letter to the Senate’s Majority and Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell expressing the fresh produce industries’ strong support for the passage of the OSRA. This letter was signed by more than three dozen organizations and associations representing the produce industry.

Additionally, when IFPA convened the first Spring Policy & Regulatory Forum in April of 2022, OSRA was a key topic for a number of volunteer leaders who marched on the Hill to advocate for a variety of policy initiatives. Those in attendance for this event included the volunteer leaders serving on relevant IFPA committees, including the Food Safety Council, Political Advisory Committee, U.S. Government Relations Council, the Supply Chain Logistics Council, Organic Committee and Grower Shipper Council. These volunteers met with members of Congress from a variety of states to seek bipartisan participation in proposed solutions that are important to our industry, including the OSRA.

Of course, with the passage of the bill, the work now begins with the rule-making process. IFPA will shift from advocating for the bill to educating members on the regulatory requirements and changes to business operations based on the law.

Here are a few highlights of what we’re sharing with members about what comes next.

OSRA empowers the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and requires the commission to issue and enforce regulations to support the law. This includes the requirement that the FMC will issue regulations that define prohibited practices related to the detention and demurrage fee assessments for carriers, marine terminal operators, shippers, and ocean transportation intermediaries, and also to define “unfair or unjustly discriminatory methods” and “unreasonable refusal” to negotiate vessel space (for exports generally or a specific importer or exporter).

The law also requires the FMC to investigate complaints and publish results of investigations into charges assessed

Ocean Shipping Reform Act: What’s Next

BY JOHN HOLLAY, DIRECTOR, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, INTERNATIONAL FRESH PRODUCE ASSOCIATION

by carriers. Under the law, carriers would bear the burden of proving the reasonableness of any charges. FMC is also required to disclose findings of false invoices by common carriers and penalties imposed against carriers for violations of the regulations.

It’s important to note that the law does not expand FMC juris diction related to charges and invoices, it only applies where the commission has existing jurisdiction. This is according to the notice provided by the Office of General Counsel at the FMC, which was issued on June 24, 2022.

One of the key changes based on the bill is regarding new requirements for ocean carriers. Under OSRA, ocean carriers would be prohibited from “unreasonably” refusing cargo when space is available, assessing fees that do not comply with appli cable regulations, and giving unreasonable preference to any commodity group or shipment.

The law also requires carrier invoices to include accurate detailed information and, through the rule-making process, the FMC may choose to impose penalties or require refunds if it find that a carrier’s invoice includes false or inaccurate information. In this case, shippers would not be obligated to pay fees if an invoice is inaccurate.

Additional provisions under the law affect shipping emergen cies, where the FMC would have 60 days of enactment to issue a request for information to determine if an emergency order could be used to reduce congestion. This is critical to maintaining the reliability of international transportation supply system.

In another effort to optimize supply chain efficiency, the FMC would also enter an agreement with National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to develop best practices for on-terminal or near-terminal chassis pools that provide service to marine terminal operators, motor carriers, and other stakeholders.

Ultimately, IFPA has been advocating for this important legis lation because it provides much needed relief for those in the fresh produce and other industries that rely on a fair system of commerce at our nation’s ports. The regulations that will come out of this legislation have the potential to provide even greater relief and much needed certainty for importers and exporters alike. This is particularly important to the fresh produce industry which, due to perishability, relies heavily on reliable, efficient ocean transport.

produce watch

TRANSITIONS

Calavo Growers, Inc.

Calavo Growers Inc., Santa Paula, CA, has named Danny Dumas senior vice president and general manager Calavo Grown, filling the role held by Robert Wedin who is retiring after 49 years with Calavo. Dumas is a veteran of the produce industry with more than 30 years of experience, primarily with Del Monte Fresh Produce and, most recently, serving as president of Courchesne Larose USA. In April, Calavo said it would reorganize its business into two segments, Grown and Prepared, with a senior vice president and general manager responsible for each. Dumas will lead the Grown segment, which consists of fresh avocados, tomatoes and papayas.

California Walnut Board and California Walnut Commission

The California Walnut Board (CWB) and the California Walnut Commission (CWC), Folsom, CA, have named Robert Verloop executive director and CEO. The CWB and CWC represent over 4,500 California walnut growers and nearly 90 handlers, producing over 1.4 billion pounds of walnuts in 2021 that ship to more than 50 countries around the world. Verloop recently held the position of COO for Coastline Family Farms, a family-owned vegetable grower/shipper. Previously, he held exec utive/leadership roles with Naturipe Farms/Natu ripe Brands, Sunkist Growers Inc. and the California Avocado Commission.

Duda Farm Fresh Foods

Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Oviedo, FL, has announced the company’s president, Samuel “Sammy” Duda, has been named CEO-elect. This decision marks the culmination of a nearly year-long process led by the company’s board of directors. Duda will continue to fulfill the responsibilities of his existing role until transitioning to CEO on Jan. 1, 2023. At that time, his role will shift to one of oversight for Duda Farm Fresh Foods as he begins guiding the family owned and operated diversified land company’s consoli dated business vision, goals and values.

Ippolito International

Ippolito International, Salinas, CA, has promoted Keith Mallett to chief oper ating officer. His background in the produce industry is diverse, balanced between field operations and valueadded processing. Prior to Ippolito, Mallett worked at Taylor Farms for five years. In his new role as COO, he will continue leading the operations team as well as oversee the continued growth and expansion of the Ippolito International group of companies.

PRO*ACT

PRO*ACT, Monterey, CA, has hired William Foster as vice president of technology.

Most recently, Foster was IT director at ASP Global.

During his tenure, he moved the company headquarters, migrated the IT infrastructure to the Azure cloud, updated the ERP and automated many common functions for a variety of users, including a WMS implementation.

Prior to ASP, Foster was the IT-ERP manager and director of supply chain and logistics at TireHub, a joint venture between Goodyear and Bridgestone.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Stemilt and Cosmic Crisp Apples Take the Spotlight

The Cosmic Crisp, Wenatchee, WA, has reported that its apple gained retail momentum this spring and made waves after appearing on the first season finale of NCIS: Hawaii. Stemilt’s review of April 2022 Nielsen retail scan data revealed that Cosmic Crisp was the No. 7 apple nationally, at 2.2% of apple volumes and 2.3% of apple dollars, and it took the No. 1 club apple position nationally by making up 20% of club apple volumes. It ranked second in average retail price per pound among the top 10 apples, trailing Honey crisp and excluding the other category made up of multiple varieties.

Zespri Launches Consumer Contest

Zespri, Orange County, CA, is capturing that first bite of SunGold Kiwifruit with its “Go Sweet. Be Bold” national contest. Shoppers have a chance to win a grand prize, cash and more by posting a photo/video on Instagram, Twitter or TikTok of their first bite into the SunGold Kiwifruit. When posting, they tag @zesprikiwifruit and use the #GoSweetBeBold and #Contest. They can also participate by uploading their submis sion at GoSweetBeBold.com. To help promote the contest at retail, Zespri has free POS header cards that can attach to the shipper displays. A QR code is printed on the header card, allowing consumers to quickly scan for contest details.

West Pak Avocado Opens Distribution Center

West Pak Avocado, Murri etta, CA, recently celebrated the grand opening of its new distribution center in Logan Township, NJ, with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house. In attendance for the event was Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer of the Third Legislative District in New Jersey, who presented West Pak with a Joint Legislative Commendation on behalf of the state. Sawyer and Commissioner Chris Konawel from the Gloucester Board of County Commissioners participated in the ribbon-cutting with West Pak CEO Mario Pacheco and vice presi dent of operations Trevor Newhouse. The full-ser vice avocado distribution center provides conve nience to customers by offering ripening, bagging, repacking and cold storage.

Partnership Shares Genetics for Earlier Ripening Sweet Cherries

Sun World International, Bakersfield, CA, and Wash ington State University have joined forces to develop a new generation of high flavor sweet cherries that ripen earlier and are more practical to grow. Horticul ture Associate Professor and Stone Fruit Breeder Per McCord and Sun World scientists are sharing germplasm from promising cherry varieties under a new research collaboration launched this spring. The agreement allows researchers to exchange and study genetic material from their collections aimed at speeding up breeding and release of improved varieties for orchards in the Pacific Northwest, Cali fornia, the greater Northwest, and worldwide

NEW PRODUCTS

A New Strawberry Flavor Innovation

Driscoll’s, Watsonville, CA, has launched its newest flavor innovation, Tropical Bliss, which expands its premium, high-flavor strawberry collection that also includes Sweetest Batch and Rosé Berries. Driscoll's Tropical Bliss Strawberries, with naturally white and yellow hues, combine the classic flavor of sweet berries and light flavor notes of tropical punch, pineapple and passionfruit.

SWEETUMS

Refresh Debuts

William H. Kopke Jr., Inc., Great Neck, NY, has unveiled its redesign for the SWEETUMS family of branded citrus items. The family of branded produce includes citrus, grapes, cherries, pears, kiwi and berries. The refreshed brands, which continue to present each produce item as an illus trated personification of smiling faces, fitted with sunglasses, has stood out for over a decade across the produce department.

Oppy Bolsters

California Grape Plans

Oppy, Visalia, CA, is dialing up a high-volume season featuring preferred varieties and an increased focus on innovation. The fresh produce grower, marketer and distrib utor anticipates a 20% boost in California grapes over last year, with a wide array of new varieties — alongside tried and true favorites. Among the new varieties Oppy will market this season are Krissy, Magenta, Timco, Allison, Ivory and Great Greens. Oppy is also building for the future in the San Joaquin Valley through agriculture technology, focused most recently on labor savings and yield estimation. New trials are underway with Bloomfield Robotics’ proprietary FLASH camera, which collects data to be processed through deep learning AI to forecast yield down to the cluster level, informing decisions and enhancing the performance and health of every plant.

Produce & Floral Watch are regular features of Produce Business. Please send information on new products, personnel changes, industry, corporate and personal milestones and available literature, along with a high resolution image to: Managing Editor, Produce Business, P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425 or email us at info@producebusiness.com

Danny Dumas

Keith Mallett

Robert Verloop

William Foster

Samuel “Sammy” Duda

Call for Innovative Product Entries

Entry is Free of Charge. Just send us your product by October 1st and give us the reason why you think it is innovative.

High-volume buyers of produce and floral are constantly in search of items that will differentiate their stores and restaurants from the competition. But what is truly innovative and what will disrupt consumer buying behavior?

We invite all produce and floral suppliers to send us their most innovative products of 2022. Let us know why you think this product is innovative in less than 500 words.

Our editorial team will select the Top 10 items for

recognition in our November 2022 Cover of PRODUCE BUSINESS

Once the Top 10 items are announced, the produce industry at large will decide which item is the MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCE ITEM OF 2022.

The final winner will be announced at this year’s New York Produce Show and Conference and will be featured in our January 2023 issue of PRODUCE BUSINESS.

Contact for more information: KWhitacre@ProduceBusiness.com Ph: 561-994-1118, ext 101

Regional Discrepancies in the Fresh Produce Industry

By Breeda Bennett-Jones and Carly Fink

From coast to coast, the United States makes up approxi mately 3 million square miles. The country is the third most populous in the world and the fourth in square mileage. Size does matter, and the range of behaviors among such a wide variety of consumers is undeniable when it comes to fresh produce perceptions and purchasing habits.

The social, cultural, and geographic differences between the regions of the United States also influence consumers’ attitudes regarding sustainability and the environment. How do the regional differences impact grocery shopping behaviors among the 235 million Americans who consider themselves primary or secondary grocery shoppers?

Provoke Insights, a full-service market research firm and brand consultancy, conducts a biannual nationwide study among Amer icans. Provoke Insights’ latest fourth wave of research sought to understand Americans’ purchasing habits and trends in over a dozen categories, including fresh produce. Using this year’s fresh-off-thepress data from March 2022, it is possible to understand the latest consumer trends in fruits and vegetables and how they are affected by regional differences.

PRE-PREPARED SALAD KITS AND PRE-CUT PRODUCE ARE MORE POPULAR IN URBAN AREAS

The majority of shoppers nationwide purchase fresh-packaged salads, with one-third picking them up at least weekly. The West and the Northeast has the highest propensity to purchase these versatile “salad kits.” Rural shoppers are the least likely to buy them, with only one-fourth purchasing them weekly. Meanwhile, urban and suburban shoppers have a higher likelihood of purchasing them weekly (33%).

Pre-cut produce is also popular with 81% of shoppers buying them. One-quarter of grocery-goers pick them up at least weekly. Like pre-cut salads, these shoppers tend to be from urban areas; there is no difference among U.S. regions.

NORTHEAST FOCUSES ON SUSTAINABILITY

Although plastic-packaged produce is common, grocery shop pers are becoming more aware of the impact their habits have on the environment. More than half of food purchasers prefer buying loose produce without plastic packaging. Uniquely, the Northeast is the most likely to buy loose produce (60%). This region is the most willing to pay more for sustainable products; they are also the most environmentally conscious.

Rural shoppers are the least likely to seek out loose produce (47%), compared to urban (57%) and suburban (55%) shoppers.

BABY BOOMERS PURCHASE LOCAL PRODUCE

Locally grown produce is another crucial pillar of the produce industry, as many Americans venture to outdoor markets and homegrown sections of grocery stores. About half (55%) of shoppers seek local crops. Though there are no significant differences across

regions or urban/suburban/rural, Provoke Insights’ survey reveals stark generational differences.

Baby boomers have the highest propensity to purchase locally grown produce (59%) compared to any other age group. Millen nials and Generation X follow suit at 56% and 54%, respectively. Generation Z is the least likely to scour their grocery stores and local farmers markets for these items.

UNAIDED BRAND AWARENESS DIFFERS BY REGION

Unprompted awareness evaluates a grocery brand’s power, as shoppers can conjure a brand without being aided. This industry is unique, as one-third of these consumers cannot name a fresh produce brand. Of those who can name a brand, Dole overwhelmingly leads (26% awareness). Chiquita (4%) and Del Monte (2%) follow suit. Many private label brands remain top-of-mind, as Whole Foods 365, Kroger, and Trader Joe’s also rank in the top 10 brands.

• Regionally, the Northeast maintains the highest awareness of produce brands, with over three-quarters of shoppers (76%) able to name a brand. The top names include Dole, Whole Foods 365, Del Monte, and Chiquita.

• The West comes in second, with 68% of consumers being able to name a produce brand. Dole and Chiquita lead, but private labels rank high.

• The Midwest is close behind, with exactly two-thirds of grocerygoers (66%) able to name a brand; Dole, Chiquita, Del Monte, and Whole Foods 365 rank the highest.

• Shoppers in the South are least likely to be aware of grocery brands (62%). These shoppers are primarily aware of Dole, followed by Chiquita, Whole Foods 365, Del Monte, and Kroger.

URBAN SHOPPERS ARE MORE BRAND LOYAL

Brand loyalty is a key metric for fresh produce brands looking to resonate with grocery shoppers. Over half (58%) of shoppers seek familiar brands when perusing fruits and vegetables. This is particularly true in urban areas, where nearly one-third (62%) of grocery shoppers purchase tried-and-true produce brands again and again — a 1% year-over-year increase from 2021.

Suburban shoppers (58%), followed by rural shoppers (54%), tend to be less loyal to their fruit and vegetable brands. pb

Provoke Insights is a full-service global market research and brand strategy firm. As a builder of brands, the firm solely focuses on research for branding, advertising, and con tent marketing initiatives. Provoke Insights empowers brands with the insights they need to navigate the cluttered marketing space and improve ROI. Carly Fink is the firm’s president and head of strategy and research; Breeda Bennett-Jones is an assistant researcher and strategist.

METHODOLOGY. Provoke Insights conducted a 15-minute online survey among 1,500 Americans between ages 21 and 65. The study was fielded from March 1-10, 2022. A ran dom stratified sample methodology was used to ensure a high degree of representation of the U.S. population (household income, age, gender, geography, ethnicity, and paren tal status). Results based on this sample have a maximum margin of sampling error of +/- 2.5% at a 95% confidence level. Statistical differences between subgroups indicated in this research were tested at a 95% confidence level. Check out https://provokein sights.com/spring-2022-trends for the latest category research, including fresh produce.

Geography Just One Key Variable

For Marketing Produce

By Jim Prevor

Knowing that different products are popular in different parts of the country is valuable information. Shippers can know where to focus their marketing while retailers know what to stock.

In some cases, it is not the people but the situation that leads to variations in purchasing habits. For example, it is no shock that in urban areas, fresh-cut items and various salad kits are more popular. This author grew up in the suburbs, and we had a double Sub-Zero refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen, another large refrigerator/freezer unit in the basement, a third in a garage and a fourth out by the pool in a small cabana. When we moved to Manhattan, we just had one side-by-side refrigerator unit, literally less than a fifth of the refrigerator capacity we had back on Long Island. It is no surprise that we bought products that had already been cut and trimmed and took up as little space as possible.

There is also a chicken or the egg conundrum when evaluating consumer purchase practices. It may be true that consumers in the northeast are more likely to buy bulk produce. Perhaps, though, retailers are more likely to display bulk produce in that region. Is that a retail response to consumer demand? Or a consumer response to retail display practices? Just as they look for more fresh-cut items to avoid storing bulk produce, perhaps consumers in more urbanized areas also prefer to buy the amount they need to avoid storing things and filling up tight storage areas.

There is also a possibility of demographic differ ences. We shouldn’t assume that the desire to avoid packaging always has to do with the environ ment. Tight urban apartments tend to have more single people or couples without children. Anyone who has had teenagers who bring over friends after practice or other activities knows there is no limit to demand. So if you have the room, and you have the teenagers, buying a package of produce is not a problem. If, however, you are a single person living in a small apartment, you may prefer to buy exactly what you want. A related issue for the produce industry is that bulk purchases can allow a small household to buy a variety: One red apple, one green apple, one yellow apple, one pear, one peach, etc. The variety may actually encourage consumption.

An issue for future research is that geography is not the only variable differentiating consumers. For example, the population in the Northeastern United States has the highest percentage of college graduates among U.S. regions. Is the focus on sustainability a function of geography? Education? Or is the obtaining of higher education partly a result of class norms and this corresponds with emphasis on environmental sustainability?

It is very difficult to know the extent to which various expression

of interest actually alters behavior. When consumers answer a survey and claim they seek to purchase local, what does that mean? Do they switch retailers because one has more local choice than another? And what, exactly, is the motivation? We’ve done some studies that indicated that consumers thought local produce should be less expensive, figuring that less transportation would be required. Would the same consumers who claim they seek local continue to do so if they were informed that the cost would be higher because more efficient growing areas are further away, or that local transportation in less-than-trailer-load shipments is more expensive? Plus what about variety? Does preference for local mean they won’t buy bananas or pineapples or counter-seasonal produce? A related question is whether what consumers say on subjects such as this is actually true. Survey research alone can’t answer every question. If we actually looked at purchase data, it would be interesting to see whether consumers who claim to value local actually buy much more local than other people.

The unaided brand recognition numbers seem unusual to us, with proprietary research we have done for others, showing even relatively new brands such as Cuties and Halos scoring higher. It might be, though, that “unaided recognition” is not very important in selling produce anyway. It is rare for retailers to sell multiple brands of the same item, so the issue is how consumers react when they see Sunkist, or another label, on the shelf. Consumers being “brand loyal” in produce may just mean they keep shopping at the same store and that store continues to buy, and display, the same brands. If one is loyal to Tesla, because one thinks it is the best car, that person will probably stick with Tesla, even if the local dealership moves a few miles away. Most people don’t buy cars very frequently, so it is no big deal.

Produce is bought, typically, more than once a week. So, even if a consumer in a survey expresses a general preference for a particular brand, our experience is that as long as the retail outlet offers a compet itive product of good quality, the consumer buys it. Comparing urban vs. suburban vs. rural brand loyalty involves many different things. A consumer in Manhattan may walk by three fruit stores between work and home, so it easy to stop and buy an item that one prefers, such as a brand. Immigration levels are also heavier in urban areas, and immigrants may have less English fluency and thus rely on brands in a way those more fluent in English don’t need to.

In marketing, geography is important – but geographical differ ences are often caused by demographic differences in the resident population.

In marketing, geography is important – but geographical differences are often caused by demographic differences in the resident population.

fruits of thought

Restaurant Dining – Antidote To Heal A Less Civil Nation

BY JIM PREVOR, PRESIDENT & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

After the pandemic challenged foodservice operators and their suppliers to even survive, we finally began to see a recovery. Now, with inflation zooming out of control and the prospects of a recession all too real, the possibility of another threat to the foodservice sector seems just too much to bear.

Fortunately, there may be a bit of light at the end of this tunnel. Consumer concerns about inflation and recession tend to lead to lower expenditures on major items. If you fear you might lose your job, you may hold off on buying a new car, taking a grand vacation or buying a new house. The savings can be substantial and lead to paying down debt and husbanding cash. It also makes resources available for small indulgences. This can mean buying more upscale foods for cooking at home and going out to eat more than one would when saving for a vacation or straining to cover a big monthly car payment.

So we have some good things to look forward to, some op portunities for growth. Yet there are also challenges that won’t be easily navigated.

Sadly, there are some new trends in society that may lead to people cocooning. When I was a boy, my father used to sell produce to the Caribbean, and one of his markets was Curaçao. We used to vacation there often so that my father could visit his customers, basically all the retailers on the island.

As a very young boy I went with my father to a central market where vendors would sell products from all over the world. Many of these vendors were members at the oldest surviving Jewish synagogue in the Western World. Then there was a series of race riots, which led to the vendors no longer feeling safe. Some left the country, and many of those who stayed moved out of the central city to fenced and secured suburban homes.

When we visited Curaçao before the riots, we would be taken out to many restaurants; after the riots, we were invited to dinner at their homes. One wonders if we are not going to experience some similar change here as the U.S. becomes more unstable socially.

Over at Sesame Place in Pennsylvania, a character was video taped during a parade, seeming to refuse to high-five two young black children. The Internet exploded, first with social media being filled with attacks on the person in the character suit and on Sesame Place, then the attacks spread to Sesame Workshop, formerly known as Children’s Television Workshop, which licenses the Sesame Street characters to the theme park.

We’ve been taking our children to the theme park since they were small and, since my children are so deeply interested in theme park management, we know many of the players inside the costumes. A significant portion of the character players are black. Though we are not doctors and have no special information about anyone’s condition, the young man who was playing the character in question seemed to be autistic or have a similar condition. Whatever happened, we have 100% confidence it had nothing to do with race.

Being in a costume like that one offers very limited vision, and there are rules. It appears that a woman was asking the character to hold her child, in order to get a photograph. Yet the characters are forbidden from doing that as they could easily drop a child. After engaging with the mom, the character went to walk away and declined to high five or otherwise engage with the two children.

The issue today is a lack of humility. Lots of people on line watch a video for a few seconds, deduce what they think is happening and go on line and start the attack. The person in the suit should be fired! The park should be closed!

To say that the people think they know what is happening significantly overstates the case. It is more a matter of virtue-signaling. From famous entertainers to people unknown, the desire to assert one’s virtuous nature by attacking others for racist be havior seems more important than actually finding out the truth.

United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had to leave through the back door of a steakhouse in Washington, DC due to protests out front over his vote on the abortion case. This was shortly after a person was arrested for attempted murder of Justice Kavanaugh outside of his home. Yet, whatever policy preference one might have on abortion, such attacks misconstrue the nature of the Court. The role of the justices is to study the law and the constitution and determine what it means. It is to be expected, all the time, that justices will vote in ways inimical to their policy preferences.

There seems to be a horrible decline in civility. It is hard to see how we will get through all this as a country. And, this kind of hostile environment may well drive people away from foodservice venues, making them choose to retreat to the comfort, privacy and safety of their own homes. Yet, if we are to succeed as a nation, we have to find a way to transcend this isolation.

The social conviviality created by sharing a good meal can ease the exchange of ideas. The idea that you can enjoy some one’s company and still disagree politically, that one can respect someone with whom you might disagree – all this is a path to a friendly future.

The foodservice industry has been depending on the government to help out with plans and programs to help the industry survive during difficult times. Now, perhaps the tables have turned, and the country needs the restaurant and hospitality sectors to thrive, that the country itself will come to remember that one can disagree and still be civil. That with good food and drink, with a nice environment, with a focus on friendship, we can get past disagreements and find common ground to build a better tomorrow.

What Are Grape Innovations Worth?

We have carefully followed the VitisGen and VitisGen2 project for a long time. It is a multi-institution research collaboration, funded by the USDA-NIFA Specialty Crop Research Initiative and focused on enabling the production of new grape varieties.

At the most recent New York Produce Show and Conference in December 2021, we had an important presentation: Consumers, Grapes and Gene Editing Cornell’s Brad Rickard Sheds Light on What the Research Shows and What’s Yet to Be Learned.

Now the Global Grape Summit, to be held in Bakersfield, CA, on August 20, 2022, will continue this exploration with a presentation by Julian Alston, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Re source Economics and Director of the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California, Davis. This presentation — titled What are Grape Varietal Innovations Worth? — is designed to help an industry wrestling with an explosion of vari eties. This is a brief selection from a much longer article running in Jim Prevor’s Perishable Pundit:

Q: At our New York Produce Show in December, Brad Rickard revealed the new VitisGen2 research built around table grape innovations, focusing on consumer attitudes and industry dynamics related to gene editing. Brad discussed proliferation of grape varieties, and how priorities on trait de velopments may not always align between producers, retailers, and consumers.

How have you been involved in this collaboration?

A: In 2017, I asked Brad and Karina Gallardo (from Washington State University) to join us for VitisGen2. Our component of [the study] is focused on the economics of varietal innovation in California table grapes. Within that, Karina led the part on eliciting consumer preferences, and Brad’s contribution in New York was based on preliminary results from that work.

That element is now complete, and we have a couple of papers submitted to professional academic journals.

Q: That’s exciting. Could you provide abstracts?

A: One paper looks at Consumer Acceptance of New Plant-Breeding Technologies: An Application to the Use of Gene Editing in Fresh Table Grapes. This study estimates consumers’

willingness to pay for specific product (quality) and process (agronomic) attri butes of table grapes, including taste, texture, external appearance, expected number of chemical applications, and the breeding technology used to de velop the plant.

JIM PREVOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Considering varietal traits, on average our survey respondents were willing to pay the highest price premiums for specific offers of improvements in table grape taste and texture, followed by external appearance and expected number of chemical applications.

Considering breeding methods, on average our respondents were willing to pay a small premium for table grapes developed using con ventional breeding rather than gene editing (e.g., CRISPR).

The group of consumers most likely to reject gene editing consid ers both genetic engineering and gene editing to be breeding tech nologies that produce foods which are “morally unacceptable and not safe to eat.”

Another submitted paper, Consumers’ Willingness to Accept Gene Edited Fruit, An Application to Quality Traits for Fresh Table Grapes, compares consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for selected quality attributes of green varieties of table grapes. Data was collected using an online survey that includes a dis crete “choice” experiment, where one group of respondents considered table grapes developed using gene editing (CRIS PR-Cas9), while the other considered table grapes developed using conventional breeding.

The highest WTP value across attributes was for sweetness, followed by crispness, uniform skin color, flavor, and size.

The rank order of the WTP values for the table grape attri butes was the same for both breeding technologies. We found no differences in the attribute-specific WTP values for grapes between the two breeding technologies. Our estimates indicat ed a slight discount in overall WTP for table grapes produced using CRISPR compared with conventional breeding, but this discount was neither economically nor statistically significant.

Considering varietal traits, on average our survey respondents were willing to pay the highest price premiums for specific offers of improvements in table grape taste and texture, followed by external appearance and expected number of chemical applications.

Q: That seems to be a critical and enlightening point that the difference was not statistically meaningful between gene edited and conventional breeding.

A: In the paper’s conclusion, the analyses suggest the ex istence of four groups that vary in level of knowledge about Genetic Engineering (GE) and CRISPR. The variation in self-re ported knowledge about breeding methods is directly related to the perception that grapes developed using CRISPR are safe, natural, and ethical to eat. Respondents reporting that they are well-informed about GE and CRISPR are also more likely to have positive attitudes toward these breeding methods.

Q: This suggests an educational/marketing component...But this raises other questions. Will retailers stock the products if they are concerned of vocal activist protests?

A: For now, USDA treats gene editing differently than GMOs, so no distinctive label is required. Will there be counter market ing against gene editing. Perhaps a non-GMO project extended to gene editing? Could gene edited product in the U.S. become an issue for exporters to Europe? These are important questions we will discuss at the Global Grape Summit.

The other main part of VitisGen is a monograph, in process, looking back wards at varietal innovation in California table grape production and measuring the value of those innovations. I am primarily responsible for that part, and much of the writing remains to be done, including on the table grape breeding industry. For that, I envision spending some time over the next few months talking with table grape breeders to learn more about the economics of their industry. Participating in the Global Grape Summit should be helpful.

I can summarize what we have learned so far in this project. For context, I can provide some broader background on how we economists think about the value of varietal traits. I will also provide an overview of the changing mix of table grape varieties being grown in California and traits being emphasized and how we value them. And I will give some of the results from our analysis of the consumer attitude surveys.

The guts of the presentation begins at the consumer research. I can spend some time on background and motivation for the research….

California grape producers face many challenges:

*Competition for resources (land, labor, water)

*Concern over reliable availability of labor and water

*Climate change

*Regulatory environment

*Pests and diseases and technologies to manage them

*Shifting demand, markets and prices; foreign competition

*Concentrated agribusiness sector

This has led to enhanced demand for innovations, including new varieties.

In terms of California grape production, table grapes are quite a small share of daily acreage, and the total area of table grapes has been fairly flat. But they're relatively high-yielding, so they're a bigger share in volume, and an even bigger share of value. It gets up to about 20% of volume, and about 30% of value. And that's partly because table grapes are found in finished retail, where wine grapes are just for processing.

So that's one story to say table grapes have been a relatively profitable segment of the industry in the Central Valley. They’ve actually been doing okay, compared with raisin grapes, and even wine grapes in the Central Valley.

In table grapes, we've had big changes in the varieties grown over the past 50 years, and especially, over the past 20 years.

Q: Yes. Brad noted there were essentially seven main varieties back in 1970, and today we see 20 main varieties, adding that Thompson Seedless used to be about 70% of the acreage back in 1970, and it’s probably closer to 25% now.

A: The story you want to tell is that there's been a lot of innovation going on in table grapes, compared with other grapes. There's been almost no innovation in variet ies of wine grapes or raisin grapes in comparison.

Q: When you say there's a lot of in novations in table grapes, what types of innovations are you talking about? Are these focused on eating qualities, such as taste and texture, size and appear ance, or more agronomic, less obvious consumer-facing traits like increasing yields, pest and disease resistance, longer shelf-life, reduced chemical use...although there could be a sustainability marketing side there.

Is the issue varietal differentiation on the retail shelf with novel products, such as the Cotton Candy or Gumdrops, that could demand premiums?

A: The guys who breed table grapes and grow them talk about flavor, good eating attributes, whether it’s crunchy and sweet, that it’s seedless, what it looks like, the size and color, the shelf life, and what part in the season it’s available.

These are the attributes they are stressing in their marketing. I don't know whether all these varieties also have desirable agronomic attributes like yield, but I'm betting they can't sell a variety that has lower yield.

To hear Professor Alston’s full presentation and learn how to get on top of the dramatic changes going on in the world of grapes, register to attend the Global Grape Summit in Bakersfield, CA, on the August 20, 2022. You can find out more and register for the Summit at www.GlobalGrapeSummit.com, and if you have additional questions regarding the event, just let us know by emailing info@globalgrapesummit.com

In table grapes, we’ve had big changes in the varieties grown over the past 50 years, and especially, over the past 20 years.

BOOTH REVIEW

July 28-29, 2022 | Monterey Conference Center and Portola Hotel and Spa | Monterey, CA

Booth #414

ALTAR PRODUCE Calexico, CA

World’s largest grower of asparagus. We are a family owned and operated business committed to offering the best quality fruits and vegetables. This same vision was applied when expanding into our other commodities, which include green onions, Brussels sprouts, grapes, parsley, broccoli, avocados, cilantro, radish, spinach and more.

Booth #300

ALLEN LUND COMPANY

La Canada, CA

Allen Lund Com pany, established in 1976, is a 3PL, working with ship pers, growers and carriers across the nation to arrange the transport of dry, refrigerated and flatbed freight through their nationwide network of of fices. Experts in produce transportation, ALC has a superior reputation in the transportation and produce industries. Their logistics and software division, ALC Logistics, provides solutions via AlchemyTMS, and their international division is licensed as an OTI-NVOCC.

Booth #716

BABÉ FARMS

Santa Maria, CA

“Marketing Bright” since 1986, Babé Farms grows, packs, and ships a diverse assortment of baby and specialty vegetables in California’s Santa Maria Valley. Rainbow root vegetables, baby lettuces, specialty greens, sig nature salad blends, and a collection of crucifers are just a few of the categories that compose this ever-expanding colorful conglomerate. Babé Farms is family owned and operated, and blessed with an ideal Mediterranean growing climate which allows owners Jeff Lundberg and Judy Lundberg-Wafer to cultivate the farm’s 1,000 acres year-round. With food safety and sustainability always at the forefront, we are committed to growing the highest quality, gourmet vegetables. Babé Farms is the “couture” label top chefs and fine retailers look to for their specialty vegetable needs.

Booth #902 BOBALU

Oxnard, CA

Please join us as we celebrate 60 years of premium Bobalu strawberries grown right here in California. As a family grown, farmer-owned company, we are proudly hand packing every berry under our family name. Learn more about our program, our family, and our delicious berries by visiting our booth as we cele brate this family milestone.

Booth #508 BOSKOVICH FRESH FOOD GROUP

Oxnard, CA

Fresh Prep, the pro cessing arm of historic company Boskovich Fresh Food Group, is committed to meeting the demands of customers and consumers for innovative, convenient, and safe fresh products. Fresh Prep offers an extensive line of value-added produce products spe cifically for the foodservice industry. Visit Booth 508 to learn more about Fresh Preps’ diverse line of foodservice items.

Booth #514 CHRISTOPHER RANCH

Gilroy, CA

California Heirloom

Garlic, fresh bulk and peeled, year-round supplies! We’re the largest grower, packer, shipper of fresh California Heirloom Garlic in the U.S. Growing garlic since 1956, from carefully selected seed to preserve excep tional flavor and quality. Produced with GAP, GMP, HACCP, USDA & FDA inspections. Variety of sizes, packs.

Booth #409 CHURCH BROTHERS FARMS

Salinas, CA

Join the Romaine revolution! Church Broth ers Farms presents the Romaine of the future: Washed & Trimmed Romaine. With savings in labor, waste, time, and money, this product is a must-have on your orders! Stop by booth #409 to learn more.

Booth #805 EAGLE PROTECT South Lake

Tahoe, CA

Contamination from “food compliant gloves” was responsible for a recent recall. Mitigate this business risk: visit Eagle Protect at booth 805 to learn about their multi-layered Delta Zero proprietary glove test ing program, ensuring Eagle gloves adhere to the highest level of consistent glove food safety and performance.

Booth #1007

FARMERS FRESH MUSHROOMS CALIFORNIA INC.

Colusa, CA

Situated in the Sacramento Valley, Premier Mushrooms offers the best quality mushrooms in California with a wide variety of white, browns and portabellas for both foodservice and retail. Growing and harvesting over 250,000 pounds per week, we service the California region weekly. Our portfolio is compet itive — we pack all sizes of sliced mushrooms in 10- and 5-pound cartons, including pails and trays. Please stop by and say hi! It’s our first time at the IFPA Foodservice Conference.

Booth #307 FORTUNE GROWERS

Elgin, IL

Fortune Growers is a fully vertically integrated produce grower and manager of a co-op of growers that provide our customers with the highest quality and freshest product. Our goal is to work collaboratively with customers for more sustainable practices. We manage and maintain a vested interest in the entire supply chain. Visit our booth!

Booth #906

HENRY AVOCADO CORPORATION

Escondido, CA

Where avocados are ripe. Henry Avocado Corpo ration, the packer and distributor of Bravocado and Green Goddess, the best avocados in foodservice. Come meet our ripe avocado experts to learn what makes our ripe avocado program the best, and receive a bag of avocados to enjoy.

IFPA Foodservice Conference BOOTH REVIEW

Idaho-E. Oregon Onion Committee

Parma, ID

For over 65 years, the Idaho and Eastern Oregon growing area has been producing large yellow, red, and white varieties of Spanish onions. Grown under Federal Marketing Order #958, the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee sets grade and quality standards that exceed USDA requirements. Contact an Idaho-E. Oregon Onion Shipper today!

KEYSTONE NATURAL HOLDINGS

Philadelphia, PA

Franklin Farms is a one-stop shop plant-based supplier with over 100 SKUs, offering a wide as sortment of veggie burgers, seitan, veggie balls, tempeh and tofu. Franklin Farms’ top selling, innovated Tofu Bite offering includes both plain and seasoned options, including Lemon Pepper, BBQ, Sesame Ginger and more. Extra firm and already cubed, the tofu bites are ready-to-eat and can be easily used in your signature recipe. Stop by Franklin Farm’s booth #303 to taste our new Extra Firm Cubed Tofu served with a Teriyaki Gochujang sauce!

LIMONEIRA

Santa Paula, CA

Limoneira is spotlighting its extraordinary Pink lemons. They are nature’s way of creating a distinctly new variety. The outer appearance ranges from rose blush to more yellow with stripes, with the interior varying from light to darker pink. Similar to a classic lemon, they are sour, yet they have a hint of grapefruit with slightly less acidity. The Pink lemons will surely delight consumers while offering them a unique and distinctive flavor profile. This lovely citrus will brighten and enhance beverages to meal presentations. Pink lemons typically have a strong shelf-life and are available year-round.

Booth #321 LIVE OAK FARMS

Le Grand, CA

From field to table, we are committed to bringing you fresh and flavorful tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, and organics that will keep you wanting more. Live Oak Farm’s dedication to meet your produce needs is second to none. Stop by our booth to learn more about what we can offer.

Booth #917

LOCAL BOUNTI

Hamilton, MT

Local Bounti is redefining indoor farming with its propri etary Stack & Flow Technol ogy,, which significantly improves crop turns, increases output and improves unit economics. Local Bounti operates advanced indoor growing facilities across the United States, servicing approximately 10,000 re tail doors with its two brands: Local Bounti and Pete’s. With a mission to Nourish Humankind and Protect our Planet, Local Bounti’s food is fresher, more nutritious, and lasts 3 to 5 times longer than tradition al agriculture.

Booth #603 MAGLIO PRODUCE

Milwaukee, WI

For five gener ations, Maglio has proven to be a leader in pro viding innovative solutions to meet every customer’s unique fresh produce needs. We have main tained a steadfast commitment to forward-thinking food safety practices and have not shied away from investments in equipment and facility technology.

Booth #418 MISIONERO

Monterey, CA

Our Wash and Trim lineup is minimally processed and ready to use! Minimizing prep time vs. field-packed options, our washed and trimmed Green Leaf and Romaine is versatile, fresh, and can be used as a gluten alternative for tacos, wraps, and many other items! Stop by Booth #418 to check out our lineup.

Booth #234 NATIONAL MANGO BOARD

Orlando, FL

Stop by booth #234 for a snack, to learn more about fresh mango and to talk about the National Mango Board’s foodser vice program. Did you know that mango is found on nearly 40% of all restaurant menus, with an 8% predicted growth rate, and that mangos are expected to outper form 81% of all other foods, beverages and ingredients over the next four years? Eighty-two percent of consumers say they would pay more for fresh mango when featured on the menu! Visit mango.org/foodservice for information and to be inspired. (Source: Datassential).

Booth #505 NATURIPE FARMS

Salinas, CA

Stop by booth #505 to check out Naturipe’s full line of food service berries, avocados and value-added products. Offering con ventional and organic strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in a variety of sizes ideal for foodservice operations. Washed and ready-toeat blueberries save time and labor for back-ofhouse operations, available in 18 oz and 32 oz packs. And introducing 3 oz. Smart Cups from Naturipe Snacks, containing USDA recommend ed snacking portions for K-12 schools. These convenient, grab-n-go packs with washed and ready-to-eat fresh fruit are perfect for students, teachers, or anyone seeking a healthy snack.

Booth

Booth #303

Booth

July 28-29, 2022 | Monterey Conference Center and Portola Hotel and Spa | Monterey, CA

IFPA Foodservice Conference BOOTH REVIEW

July 28-29, 2022 | Monterey Conference Center and Portola Hotel and Spa | Monterey, CA

OKANAGAN SPECIALTY FRUITS INC. – ARCTIC APPLES

Summerland, BC

With a 28-day shelf life, Arctic apple slices stay orchard-fresh lon ger! Arctic apples are available in multiple package sizes, cuts and varieties — in cluding our new 20 oz. foodservice pack and Arctic Fuji variety. Come meet our president Neal Carter and taste the difference for yourself at Booth #704.

PRIME TIME INTERNATIONAL

La Quinta, CA

As the largest year-round grower, packer and shipper of peppers in the U.S, Prime Time is committed at all levels of the production chain, providing premium quality produce 365 days a year. In addition to peppers, asparagus and sweet mini peppers, Prime Time offers a variety of seasonal produce items.

Booth #904

PROCURANT

Los Gatos, CA

Procurant is transforming the global food supply chain with technology to reduce waste, increase visibility, improve food safety and dig itize business from production to consumption. For more information, go to www.procurant.com.

PRODUCE PRO SOFTWARE

Woodridge, IL

Since 1990, Produce Pro Software has been the leading all-in-one ERP software providing innovative business and technology solutions specifical ly designed for all business types within the produce and perishables industry. Combining powerful, cutting-edge software solutions while leveraging perishable food industry expertise and consulting services, Produce Pro can in crease organizational efficiency, minimize waste and loss, reduce operating costs and provide real time data. For more information, visit us at Booth #616, or visit producepro.com.

PURE FLAVOR Leamington, ON

Fresh green house-grown vegetables available year-round. Pure Flavor is a family of greenhouse vege table growers who share a commitment to bringing A Life of Pure Flavor to communities everywhere. Our passion for sustainable greenhouse growing, strong support for our retail and foodservice cus tomers, and focus on engaging consumers is built on a foundation drawn from genera tions of growing expertise. We are the next generation of vegetable growers, inspired to put quality, flavor, and customers first by providing greenhouse-grown vegetables from our farms that are strategically located throughout North America.

Booth #224 RED JACKET ORCHARDS

Geneva, NY

Since 1958, three generations of the Nicholson family have mastered the art of harvesting and pressing premium fruits and juices. Our 100% cold-pressed juice is never from concentrate and we never add water, sugar or preservatives. You can taste our commitment to quality and freshness in every sip!

Booth #706

RIVER POINT FARMS

Plymouth, WA

River Point Farms, located in the Uma tilla Basin of Oregon and Columbia Basin of Washington, is a large grower, packer and processor of red, yellow and white onions. As a unique, single source supplier, River Point Farms has all the necessary capabilities to be your food safe, secure onion supply partner. Please come and visit us at our IFPA Booth #706.

Booth #914 SPICEOLOGY

Spokane, WA

Founded in 2013, Spiceology is the fastest-grow ing spice company in America and is on a mission to bring the magic (and quality) back to spices. We’re a chef-owned and operated, one-stop spice provider that develops innova tive blends and offers over 400 ingredients that are ground fresh in small-batches and shipped fresh. Visit us at booth 914 to meet the team and snag some free samples!

Booth #419

THE GARLIC COMPANY

Shafter, CA

The Garlic Company will be featuring fresh ly, peeled garlic from its new 2022 garlic harvest. Whole bulb garlic and peeled shallots will also be on display, amongst other items. We look forward to seeing everyone at the show.

Booth #1004

WESTMORELAND SALES –TOPLINE FARMS

Leamington, ON

Third generation and family-owned, Topline Farms has a strong back ground in bringing quality green house vegetables to market. A grow er/packer/shipper that’s located in Leamington, Ontario, Canada, they’re always growing and improving to meet the demand of their consumers. Topline Farms takes great pride in their new packaging innovation partnership — Apeel treated, plastic free, English cucum bers. With their own fleet of trucks and a strong quality management system, Topline Farms can satisfy the needs of foodservice customers across North America. pb

Booth #309

Booth #616

Booth #210

Fresh, Quality Produce at Heart of Highland Park Market

BY JODEAN ROBBINS

The story of Highland Park Market, located in Manchester, CT, began in 1886 when William White opened a small general store in the hope of providing his neighbors with a care fully selected stock of dry and fancy goods.

In 1958, Jack Devanney purchased this small, hometown market and held fast to those same traditions.

“Over the years, Highland Park has become synonymous with high quality, reliable perishables and grocery,” says Brian Gibbons, produce director. “We have become a relatively small, high-end grocery store, where we offer exceptional quality and service from the time you enter our store until the time you leave.”

In 1985, Jack’s son Tim took over as pres ident and expanded to locations in Glaston bury and Farmington, CT. “The stores have always been a family-owned and operated business,” says Gibbons. Today, five of Tim’s six children are in the business and have taken over the day-to-day operations of the stores.

From the beginning, Highland Park immersed itself into each community where stores are located. “We have been welcomed by a strong family base of customers in each

grocery store around. We offer only the freshest and finest produce available in the marketplace.”

PRODUCE BOUNTY

Each store is around 20,000 square feet, with produce departments ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. Produce plays a vital role in all the stores. “Produce dictates what kind of store you are,” says Gibbons.

Produce is the first thing customers see when entering the store. The store offers a wide variety of both fruit and vegetables, including organic produce, which continues to grow each year. The department handles

them with exactly that.”

Produce runs an average of 18% of the store business. “This is tremendous for a grocery chain,” says Gibbons. “It’s one of the most profitable departments in the store.”

Even from outside the store, abundant produce or seasonal displays lure customers. At springtime, the front entrance of the store looks like a nursery bursting with flowers and plants. During fall, enormous displays of pumpkins and cornstalks put shoppers in a bountiful frame of mind. Inside the store, produce displays focus on sale items, seasonal items and colorful items. A fragrant, fresh cut flower display greets customers as soon as they enter the department.

VERY VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Produce department décor balances an old-time grocer feel with clean and modern touches. A bright, open format presents an ideal showcase for produce. Signage gives a nod to the old-fashioned general store feeling while clearly identifying departments and sections.

The department uses low wood bins and tables with different designs such as octagons and squares. “The goal of these displays is to be able to merchandise different items next to each other while still seeing the whole way across the department,” says Gibbons.

‘Produce dictates what kind of store you are,’ says Highland Park Market Produce Director Brian Gibbons.

In one of two large refrigerated cases in the Highland Park Market, 8 feet of wet greens and 36 feet of refrigerated vegetables give shoppers an enormous amount of choice and features vibrant and contrasting colors.

Highland Park Market in Manchester, CT, uses low wood bins and tables in different designs such as octagons and squares to merchandise different items without hampering a shopper’s view of the entire department.

berries, grapes and different seasonal items up front on sale,” says Gibbons. “These displays especially include items such as strawberries, blueberries, green and red grapes, clementines and cherries.”

The department is flanked by large refrig erated cases. On the left side, eight feet of wet greens and 36 feet of refrigerated vegetables give shoppers an enormous amount of choice and draws them in with expert use of vibrant and contrasting color. The case also merchan dises a variety of salad dressings, dips and other value-added vegetable items.

A 40-foot case of refrigerated fruit, juices, cut fruit and other value-added fruit items lines the right side. This case includes bright, color-blocked displays of apples, pears and citrus to draw the shopper’s eye. Ample space between the twin refrigerated cases allows for wood tables of bountiful displays down the middle of the department for melons, toma toes and potatoes.

While some items remain constant, the staff tries to change the offering to continu ally display what is best for customers. “We constantly change our displays throughout the year to push the most seasonal items, as well as items on sale,” says Gibbons.

CONNECTING PRODUCE TO CUSTOMERS

Principal produce sources start with wholesalers. “Our main wholesaler is Shapiro out of Boston and we also use C&S and Four Seasons,” says Gibbons. “We rely on our wholesalers for consistency and quality. Quality, sizing, price and daily deliveries are all important criteria in our sourcing.”

In the summer, Highland Park adds product from an abundance of local farmers. “Summer is great, with fresh, Connecti cut-grown corn, vegetables, blueberries and peaches delivered daily,” says Gibbons.

The store distributes a weekly circular, and every Saturday and Sunday, the store

says Gibbons. “It lists who we are buying from, so our customers know exactly where we are getting our great Connecticut-Grown Produce.”

Gibbons explains the store’s role is as a community partner. “We provide a safe, clean environment for residents to shop and for some kids to maybe work here also,” he says. “We work with all the schools and local orga nizations in town for school sports, road races and golf tournaments by helping out with donations and having a presence.”

KEY ADDITIONS

The store’s other departments complement Highland Park’s commitment to freshness and quality in produce. In addition to its produce offering, the store also provides a complete, old-fashioned, full-service meat counter that is fully staffed with friendly professionals to ensure customer satisfaction. The store purchases fresh fish weekly from a local, upscale, fresh fish purveyor.

In the bakery, the store tenders a wide variety of signature desserts created by in-store pastry chefs, as well as an assortment of breads, rolls and breakfast pastries baked fresh daily.

Highland Park also caters to convenience. It boasts a nationally recognized full-service deli carrying a variety of quality products. Customers can easily pick up one of the store’s famous HPM sandwiches or choose from a selection of Grab-n-Go meal items or sushi made in-store by sushi chefs. pb

FACT FILE

HIGHLAND PARK MARKET

317 Highland Street Manchester, CT 06040 860-646-4277

www.highlandparkmarket.com

Hours: 8am - 7pm, Monday – Saturday 8am – 6pm, Sunday

A 40-foot case of refrigerated fruit, juices, cut fruit and other value-added fruit items lines one side of the Highland Park Market produce department. This case includes bright, color-blocked displays to draw the shopper’s eye.

ALL-DAY PRODUCE-CENTRIC DINING

BY CAROL M. BAREUTHER, RD

Dining out once was, and still is for some people, an indul gent affair relegated to special occasions. Steak or seafood (or both) starred front row center on a diner’s plate and palate. But times are changing.

In 2016, for the first time since the U.S. Department of Commerce began collecting this type of data two decades ago, Amer icans spent more money eating out than in-home.

A big driver is that dining is now less celebratory and more mundane. There’s graband-go breakfasts, corner eatery and QSR (quick-service restaurant) work lunches, and socializing with friends while dining out or dialing out for delivery.

This trend in spend reversed briefly with the pandemic — but it didn’t last long.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service Food Expenditure Series data updated June 1, 2022, away-fromhome food spending outpaced dollars for food at home every month from January 2021 to March 2022, returning to the pattern seen pre-pandemic.

Americans’ everyday embrace of eating

out and the foodservice sector’s rebound open the door to putting more fresh produce on the menu. This is especially true in new and exciting ways and throughout the day.

Consumers want to eat healthier after COVID, says Nicholas Gonring, North American corporate consulting chef, Culinary R&D, N.A. Distribution for Gordon Food Service, in Wyoming, MI. Chefs can play this to an advantage by creating dishes that can’t easily be made at home — and take experien tial dining to a new level.

“I see produce as the new star in this arena,” Gonring adds. “Fruits and vegetables are healthful. They are also incredibly versatile and flavorful. It’s a great balance.”

And he puts on his creative chef’s toque: “Think citrus-like yuzu made into mari nades, sauces and dressings. Purple yam gnocchi. Persimmons are pickled in the fall and added to an appetizer or small plates charcuterie board. Pickled green strawber ries on salads. Tandoor beets are roasted in a wood-fired oven where the sugars cara melize.”

Especially with the cost of proteins today, moving produce to the center plate and using fruits and vegetables in creative ways in all

parts of the menu has a positive impact on a restaurant’s bottom line, Gonring says.

This produce-centric menuing move has the potential to increase overall fruit and vegetable consumption, too. The Brentwood, MO-based Produce for Better Health Foun dation (PBH) State of the Plate research examined fruit and vegetable eating occasion frequency from 2015 to 2020. Away-fromhome fruit consumption was flat across this time period, while away-from-home vegetable intake slightly increased, driven by foodservice outlets, including fast food, full service, and cafeterias.

“PBH’s State of The Plate data show that consumers are fans of fresh produce,” says Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN, PBH’s president and chief executive officer. “There is an opportunity for the fresh produce industry to work with foodservice leaders to increase consumption by encouraging individuals and families to eat their favorites more often.”

She cites PBH data that demonstrates light frequency vegetable consumers signifi cantly depend on foodservice outlets to increase their consumption. On top of that, behavioral scientists say to increase produce consumption, it must be easy. “What could

Americans’ everyday embrace of eating out and the foodservice sector’s rebound open the door to putting more fresh produce on the menu.

be easier than ordering off the menu and having someone deliciously prepare it for you?”

“Innovation at foodservice has always inspired produce consumption,” agrees Megan McKenna, senior director of marketing and foodservice for the National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB), headquartered in Winter Springs, FL.

Here are how top culinary trends can serve as an inspiration for putting more fresh fruits and vegetables on the menu in different day parts.

1. CUSTOMIZABLE TOPPINGS

From meal maker to garnish, topping produce and nonproduce platforms with fruits and vegetables — akin to the recipe for avocado toast — offers endlessly customizable opportunities.

“Several loaded and topped items where produce can be a key element continue to grow including, loaded tots,” says Claire Conaghan, associate director of Datassential, based in Chicago, IL.

Over the past year, this application of potatoes has grown 26% and over the past four years, it has grown on menus by 191%, according to Datassential research.

“Loaded tots are the top trend we are seeing on menus, which is popular with millennials and Gen Z. It’s a trend growing across all menu day parts and even more popular now with the fact that they travel well, so they are great for take-out and delivery menus,” says Jamie Quinno Bowen, director of marketing for the Idaho Potato Commission, in Eagle, ID.

A good example is the Veggie Tater Tot Skillet served at Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in San Francisco, CA, Bowen says. In addition to potatoes, the skillet topping incorporates fresh onion; red, yellow, and green bell peppers; mushrooms; spinach leaves; Roma tomatoes; kale leaves; and avocado for garnish.

Fresh produce is a mainstay in finishing a dish, offering a visual and textural contrast. Current favorites include pickled onions (on 12.6% of menus, up 35% over the past four years), microgreens (on 1.8% of menus, up 34% over the past four years), and watermelon radish (on 1.3% of menus, up 28% over the past four years), according to Datassential’s Conaghan.

“I love the idea of microgreens becoming a staple in the home and foodservice,” says Justin Timineri, executive chef for the Tallahassee, FL-based Florida Depart ment of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). “Usually reserved for garnish, it’s time to bring microgreens into the limelight. Packed with flavor and nutrition, they add a

huge boost to any dish. Citrus microgreens served with fruit, or in smoothies in the morn ings and microgreens added to a feature salad or sandwich at lunch.”

2. PLANT-BASED & PLANT-FORWARD

Plant-based foods ranked second only to sustainability in the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) 2022 What’s Hot survey, which asked some 350 professional chefs what they thought would be the Hottest Culinary Trend this year.

Further, the top plant-based produce-ori

ented trends by day part include plant-based breakfast sandwiches; plant-based sandwiches, globally inspired salads and grain-based bowls at lunch, and plant-based burgers at dinner, according to the Washington, DC-headquar tered organizations survey results.

“Fresh produce is the original plant-based foods. Many of the branded plant-based burgers out there are sold at a premium and they are ubiquitous; they don’t give an operator a point of differentiation,” says Gordon Food Service’s Gonring. “How fresh fruits and vege tables are creatively prepared, plus their flavor

and health benefits, can offer this ‘something different’ to diners.”

Jackfruit is gaining (on 1.1% of menus, up 100% over the past four years), as consumers desire actual plants in their plant-based appli cations, says Datassential’s Conaghan. “Green jackfruit is being used anywhere you might use pulled pork, including tacos, bowls, sand wiches, lettuce wraps and nachos.”

For example, she says, Elephants Delica tessen, with locations throughout Portland, OR, offers a veggie breakfast sandwich with eggs, jackfruit black bean veggie sausage, Tilla mook cheddar, and spinach with hollandaise on ciabatta. And Blackwood BBQ, in Chicago, IL, has the option of beef brisket, pulled pork, or vegetarian jackfruit for its breakfast wrap catering meal.

Mushrooms are being smash-seared as the ultimate and real ‘plant-based burger,’ says Pam Smith, RDN, foodservice consultant to the Lee’s Summit, MO-based Mushroom Council. “I love seeing portabellas roasted

and shredded into ‘pulled ports’ and used for barbecue, on a tostada or in a bao bun, or as a sandwich topper.”

It’s exciting to see chefs and other menu developers think of mushrooms in creative ways, adds Smith, who shares three examples.

For one, in April, celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn showcased an alternative to crab cakes with his Lion’s Mane Mushroom and Jackfruit Cakes at the Culinary Institute of America’s Global Plant-Forward Culinary Summit. Second, Chef Derek Sarno, chef-di rector of Plant-Based Innovation at UK retailer, Tesco, turned 400 pounds of mush

n AVOCADO TOAST AS AN INNOVATION TEMPLATE

A great source of inspiration for menu innovation is the phenomenon of avocado toast. Not a new dish, its fame started to skyrocket after Bon Appetit maga zine published a recipe called ‘Your New Avocado Toast’ in its January 2015 issue.

“If we look back at what made avocado toast a success, it is the following: low cost, easy to execute consistently, customizable, applicable to all day parts, and appealing to multiple consumer bases,” says David Spirito, senior director of culinary and foodservice

for Irving, TX-headquartered Avocados from Mexico (AFM).

To have mass appeal, a dish needs to have visual appeal, taste great and have a nutritional aspect, adds Deena Ensworth, senior content manager for Markon Coop erative Inc., in Salinas, CA. “People want to feel they are eating healthy, but need a punch of texture or flavor to draw them in. The fact that avo toast is also vegetarian/vegan adds folks from those demographics, too.”

The best lesson learned from the

rooms into ‘vegan meat’ at the Hot Luck Festival, a meaty, major annual barbecue event in Austin, TX. Third, Jersey Mike’s Subs, a nearly 2,000-location sandwich chain headquartered in Manasquan, NJ, added its Grilled Portabella Mushroom and Swiss Sub to its permanent menu, after a successful 2021-2022 trial. The offering was named the best healthy fast-food sandwich in the 2022 Eat This, Not That! Food Awards. Plus, interest in this sub prompted the addition of two other new menu items: The Portabella Cheesesteak and the Portabella Chicken Cheesesteak, to the Jersey Mike’s menu.

3. GLOBAL FLAVORS

Global fare and flavors ranked fifth in the NRA’s 2022 What’s Hot survey of the Hottest Culinary Trend in 2022. Specifically, the top three global trends were Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Singaporean, Philippine, etc.); South American (Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean, etc.); and Caribbean (Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, etc.)

Elote, also called Mexican Street Corn, which features corn on the cob spread with mayonnaise, chili powder, lime juice, Cotija cheese, and cilantro, could be the next avocado toast, says Tara Murray, vice president of marketing for Rhome, TX-based Fresh Inno vations, LLC, makers of Yo Quiero branded produce-based dips. The company released its Elote dip in December.

A longtime favorite, the Mediterranean Diet, ranked No. 1 as the best diet overall by U.S. News and World Report, in its Jan. 4 release. It’s a position this diet has held for the fifth straight year.

“Produce-based dips and spreads are popular in Mediterranean cuisine. Most people don’t realize that 22 countries make up the Mediterranean. I think we’ll see much more innovation,” says Gordon Food Service’s Gonring, who, with his colleagues conducts live tastings annually in newly opened innova tive restaurant concepts in New York, Chicago

smash hit of avocado toast is that impactful innovation does not need to be complicated or esoteric or push every boundary, says Maeve Webster, presi dent of Menu Matters, in Arlington, VT.

“Oftentimes, the desire to really lean into complicated innovation can create something unique and intriguing, but more than consumers can necessarily wrap their heads around. Sometimes, the simplest execution that really showcases key flavors and fits well with consumers’ behavior will be a winner.”

The best lesson learned from the smash hit of avocado toast is that impactful innovation does not need to be complicated.

Tots are hot, like this veggie tater tot skillet. Over the past year, this application of potatoes has grown 26% and over the past four years, it has grown on menus by 191% — across all menu day parts.

PHOTO COURTESY IDAHO POTATO COMMISSION

and Los Angeles, then distills this taste-testing into the top cutting-edge menu trends.

He says muhammara (roasted red pepper dip) is gaining popularity. So is beet hummus, which can be served on toast topped with leafy greens, herbs, and spice blends. Dips made with beans, legumes, nuts with produce added fresh or roasted and folded in are big too.

4. SWEET & SAVORY

Mangos, watermelon, pears, and blueber ries are traditionally eaten out of hand or as a dessert. Using these sweets in savory dishes is an application that’s barely scratched the surface.

“The acid and touch of sweet from mango helps bring flavors into balance across menus and day parts,” says Jason Hernandez, of Blade & Tine Culinary Consulting and chef consultant for the National Mango Board, in Orlando, FL. “For example, chefs can take French toast into new directions with a savory-sweet mango bacon jam. Fresh mango can replace tomatoes with its subtle sweetness and acidity, including in the classic caprese salad. Mango could also be bruleed for a smoky flavor in place of prosciutto on tradi tional toasts, like crostini, with goat cheese.”

Watermelon and feta salad is a classic, says the NWPB’s McKenna, “but think of all those

who salt their watermelon. The opportunity of pairing watermelon and cheese is endless. The soft, tanginess of burrata or the salty, crunch of pecorino Romano with watermelon takes the watermelon salad or appetizer build in a new direction. The same with halloumi, cheddar, blue cheese and more.”

The Pear Bureau Northwest offers savory foodservice recipes for its fruit. One creative example is The Fez Burger, from the Fez Restaurant in Phoenix, AZ, which features cinnamon pears with beef, a spicy barbecue sauce, cilantro, feta and fried onions on top.

Another out-of-the-box use is Cod Ceviche with Pickled Pears, by Chef Stephan Pyles, at his former namesake restaurant in Dallas, TX.

A Foodservice Patron study fielded in May 2021 by the Folsom, CA-headquartered U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC), found 59% of patrons agree they ‘wish there were more exciting and adventurous applications for blueberries’ on menus, and nearly 30% selected side and entrée salads as desired items for blue berry inclusion, and a smaller number wanted to see blueberries applied to savory options like chicken wings with blueberry sauce.

Want menu inspiration? Look at what people throw away in the kitchen. For example, using watermelon rind — like in this Indian watermelon rind stir fry — is a creative way to combat food waste and capture a new plate.

PHOTO COURTESY

What’s The Next Avocado Toast?

Innovative. Creative. All-around excel lent in using fresh fruits and vegetables in the culinary arts. These are among the gold standards by which winners of the International Fresh Produce Associa tion’s Produce Excellence in Foodservice Awards Program are selected. PRODUCE BUSINESS asked some of the 2022 IFPA winners, which represent a broad spec trum of the foodservice industry, to look into their crystal balls and forecast the next big produce trend after avocado toast, and, how this dish can be menued across the day.

Christina Betondo, Colleges & Universities Category WinnerAssociate Director of Culinary Excellence

R&DE, Stanford Dining Stanford University Stanford, CA

What is the Next Avocado Toast & Why? Breakfast salad. We serve a breakfast salad bar that offers seasonal vegetables, greens and legumes. It’s become a student favorite for breakfast. This program supports our inclusive dining initiative, providing alternative breakfast options to people of diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds, allergens and dietary needs, plant-forward and vegan preferences, religious diets, and more. Offering these options is also a way to lower our carbon footprint by reducing our overall egg and breakfast meat purchases. I see endless potential for breakfast salad.

Use in Day Parts: This is available already in most foodservice operations and restaurants, but most diners and operators tend to only focus on for lunch and dinner. But it’s almost mind-blowing to see it appear in the breakfast daypart, to have it on a menu in the morning hours. By offering an option that’s so crave-able, original, and interesting to come across on a breakfast menu, this dish could dramatically increase Ameri cans’ produce consumption.

Emma Dye, Quick Serve Restaurants Category Winner

Founder + Chief Salad Officer Crisp Salads Portland, OR

What is the Next Avocado Toast & Why? While edamame has been around and is ubiquitous at sushi restaurants, I believe we’re going to see it popping up in other creative ways. It works for both the plant-based and low-carb followers, plus it tastes great! Folks can mash it up with a myriad of other ingredients and use it as a dip or spread it on toast. It can even be thinned out and used as a dressing/sauce.

Use in Day Parts: From edamame toast to adding edamame to scrambled eggs, it’s great for breakfast and then it’s super easy to throw some edamame into a lunch or dinner salad.

Kati Lauffer, Supermarkets & Retail Operators

Category Winner

Corporate Chef Nordstrom Restaurant Division Seattle, WA

What is the Next Avocado Toast & Why?

Rather than a specific dish, I see the next big food trend (for produce) as the continued innovation of produce-based protein alternatives. I am seeing more of these crop up — from artichokes to jackfruit, to mushrooms, and beyond. Long term, it is innovation like this that will continue to highlight the benefits of fresh produce — not only enjoyed ‘as is’ in its raw or cooked state, but also as a complement and flavor enhancer to other foods.

Use in Day Parts: Produce-based protein alternatives can fit into all day parts — from ‘chicken’ and waffles to ‘burgers’ and ‘nuggets’, and even into pastas and onto pizzas.

Steve McHugh, Fine Dining Restaurants Category Winner Executive Chef/Proprietor & Owner

Cured Restaurant Group – Cured and Landrace San Antonio, TX

What is the Next Avocado Toast & Why? I think the next avocado toast is going to be the versatility of the kimchi pancake. We make them in the restaurant with all different types of ferments, not just kimchi, and they are great during all meal periods. Ferments are amazing, as they not only preserve food, but also make them taste better and are great for your health.

Use in Day Parts: This works great with eggs in the morning or as a fun snack at lunch with dipping sauce. It also pairs nicely with a grilled piece of fish during dinner. And, because they are made with rice flour and not wheat flour, they are gluten-free.

Dugan Wetzel, Hospitals & Healthcare Category WinnerExecutive Chef Eskenazi Health Indianapolis, IN

What is the Next Avocado Toast & Why? I feel like mushroom powder could really grow in popularity, as the request for dishes featuring items other than traditional protein continue to grow. Even though mushrooms themselves are already being utilized on menus and dishes, chefs are going to continue to be creative and come up with different techniques that will help appeal to their target audience.

Use in Day Parts: Powders are an incredible way to flavor soups and broths, mix in with your morning coffee, or put into your breakfast smoothies to help with inflammation or boost the immune system. Sprinkling it on vegetables or mixing it in with different grains is a great way to bring out that earthy/umami flavor in bowls and other entrée options where you may not be featuring a traditional protein to help give that feeling of satiety.

In answer, foodservice recipes offered by the USHBC include a Blueberry Brisket Sandwich, Middle Eastern Cauliflower Bowl Blueberry Tahini Sauce, and PB Blueberry Burger.

5. BOUNTIFUL BOWLS

Outside the box of smoothies and salads, produce is playing a starring role in bowls, according to Maeve Webster, president of Menu Matters, in Arlington, VT. “This is because every element of a bowl needs to work in concert with the other ingredients (versus a plated entree where the sides may or may not play a critical role). Texture, flavor, and appear ance all become critical components of the overall arrangement in a bowl. Bowls are very relevant across all day parts. Breakfast bowls are one of the fastest applications for this format.”

Examples of inspired bowls for lunch or dinner are the Grilled Chicken & Avocado Lifestyle Bowl, Walking BBQ Pork Bowl, and Chicken & Avocado Tandoori Bowl, all foodservice recipes offered by AFM.

6. BEVERAGES

Beyond citrus slices and maraschino cher ries, it’s bartenders who are using a greater volume and variety of fresh produce. This is an interesting and innovative use, particularly for vegetables, says Webster, and should expand

consumers’ perception of how and where produce can work.

Examples include a Watermelon Paloma and classic Watermelon Negroni from the NWPB, Blue-Eyed Mary and Blueberry Manhattan from the USHBC, and Florida Honey and Citrus Hot Toddy and Florida Sunset Mule from the FDACS.

Interestingly, while entrees have the highest penetration of avocado (41%), beverages have seen the largest increase in penetration (126%), over the last four years, according to the Irvine, CA-headquartered California Avocado Commission (CAC).

7. BREAKFAST & BRUNCH

Over the last two years, consumers have increased their focus on breakfast and brunch, according to results of a 2020 Harris Poll, as shared by the CAC. More specifically, 75% of those surveyed are excited to eat breakfast and brunch again and 66% are excited for new twists on breakfast classics.

Culinary trends often begin at high-end places that offer lunch and dinner separately, move to all-day menus, and then to breakfast. So, making something work for breakfast can be the most difficult part, according to Datassential’s Conaghan.

Yet, “many people now look to having

veggies as part of their breakfast, and an area that has always done that well is Israel with the classic Israeli breakfast salad starting to grow on early-stage menus,” she says. “That pairing of tomatoes and cucumbers would be an appropriate summer addition to more familiar breakfast bowls that might be leaning toward Mediterranean flavors. Breakfast salads, in general, are starting to grow and are a nice way to highlight all forms of seasonal veggies, but this will remain a fringe trend for a more health forward consumer.”

Avocado Toast 2.0 variations are emerging and ideal for breakfast and brunch. One example is Mango Cado Toast, in which there’s a layer of gingery mango cream cheese, topped with a layer of chunky mango guaca mole, and finished with thinly sliced mango cut from a mango cheek, micro greens, and red pepper flakes.

Another is the DIY Avocado Toast on the brunch menu at Paul Martin’s American Grill in Westlake Village, CA, says Jan DeLyser, the CAC’s vice president of marketing. “They’ve deconstructed avocado toast to create a char cuterie board with thick toasted sourdough, smashed avocado, deviled eggs, chevre, and a fresh produce lineup that includes tomato, radish, microgreens, and fresh berries. It takes avocado toast to the next level.” pb

Pizza Is The Perfect Platform For Produce

Fresh produce toppings can also help pizza operators stand out.

BY CAROL M. BAREUTHER, RD

Platforms.

Everyone in menu research and development thinks about platforms for serving a wide variety of menu items. Platforms can be breads, tortillas, biscuits, baked potatoes or pizza crusts, and each of these platforms is a perfect perch for fresh produce. Pizza especially. Crispy or doughy crust, a savory sauce, melted cheese, and a blank palette for possible toppings from arugula to zucchini.

“American diners love to see new, innova tive options on menus, but they also love to see and order the familiar,” says Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN, FAND, founder and pres ident of Farmer’s Daughter Consulting Inc., in Sacramento, CA. “A vegetable-topped pizza may never take over the popularity of a pepperoni pizza, but there is no doubt about the growing demand for more options for ‘better-for-me’ menu items that feature more fruits and vegetables.”

Pizza is a paragon of platforms for fresh produce because of its widespread popularity.

Americans eat 3 billion pizzas per year, according to a 2021-published article in Pizza Today magazine in celebration of Octo ber’s National Pizza Month. Not even the pandemic could part Americans from their pie. Case in point: the Top 500 Pizza Chain category was one of the only menu catego ries to manage positive sales growth in 2020, increasing by 4.7% during the year, according to the 2022 Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report by Chicago, IL-headquartered foodservice market research firm, Technomic, Inc. What’s more, cumulative Top 500 Pizza chain sales increased by 7.5% in 2021.

However, times are changing. That is, 28% of respondents to Technomic’s March 2021-published Pizza Menu Trends reported they ‘strongly agreed’ that they would eat pizza more often if there were healthier options available.

“The wellness or health halo trend started long before the pandemic, but since restrictions have been lifted, many diners have expressed an even greater desire to eat healthier,” says Deena Ensworth, senior content manager for the Salinas, CA-based Markon Cooperative

Inc. “Of course, vegetarians are in this demo graphic, but so are flexitarians and meat-eaters. Using small bits of protein, say crispy, salty prosciutto to accent the bitterness of arugula or the sweetness of pineapple, appeals to a wide range of customers while allowing foodservice operators to reduce food budgets and sidestep meat shortages.”

Fresh produce toppings can also help pizza operators stand out.

“We see independent restaurants differ entiating their pizza menu offerings with unique fruit and vegetable toppings to help them stand out from local competitors as they welcome diners back post-pandemic,” says Chef Scott McCurdy, director of culinary for Rosemont, IL-headquartered foodservice distributor, U.S. Foods.

During the pandemic, operators were scaling back their menu offerings, McCurdy says. “Today, they are expanding their menus to include exciting, bold flavors and concepts that will attract and retain both new and returning diners. For something like pizza, making simple, exciting twists on old menu favorites using fresh ingredients including pre-cut, pre-diced and pre-marinated items

is an effective way for restaurants to add new flavors to their menu without adding a lot of complexity back-of-house.”

7 INSPIRED WAYS TO INCORPORATE FRESH PRODUCE INTO PIZZA

1. THE MIGHTY ’SHROOM

Mushrooms are the third most popular pizza topping in the U.S. after pepperoni and sausage. However, they are No. 1 when it comes to produce. Fifty-four percent of the 6,000-plus Americans asked about their most liked pizza toppings for a 2021-conducted YouGov poll responded with ‘mushrooms.’

“This may be because they go well with both veggie and meat pies,” says Pam Smith, RDN, foodservice consultant for the Redwood Shores, CA-headquartered The Mushroom Council, co-chair of The Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Menus R&D Collabora tive, and co-creator of the menus at Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52 restaurants.

“This will only trend up as the New York Times declared mushrooms the 2022 ‘Ingre dient of the Year.’ This will land mushrooms

The wellness trend is impacting the pizza category, as diners have expressed the desire to eat healthier. Shown: Markon's white pizza with mushrooms and arugula.

PHOTO

at the top of most superfood and top trend lists, so why not top them on every pizza? They play a vital role in feeding the immune system and support brain and bone health. Not to mention, they are a delicious foundation for plant-forward and plant-based eating.”

By volume, white sliced mushrooms remain incredibly popular on pizza due to price, availability, and demand by traditional pizza operators, according to Sean Steller, director of business development for Phillips Mush room Farms, in Kennett Square, PA. “We are seeing more shiitake and maitake featured on pizza, as well as mushroom blends growing in popularity. Some operators are listing ‘Mush rooms’ or ‘Mushroom Blend’ as the topping to provide additional flexibility around ingredient availability.”

Higher-end restaurants serving woodfired pizzas are among those driving demand for specialty mushrooms, adds Fred Recchiuti, general manager for Basciani Foods Inc., in Avondale, PA. “Our Wild Bunch is a combi nation of sliced cremini, portabella, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms. Chefs will use as is or roast or smoke the mushrooms first before topping a pizza. A plus is that using the word ‘wild’ on the menu allows operators to charge a premium and make better margins.”

A wide selection of mainstream and specialty mushrooms are available fresh from foodservice produce suppliers or broad-line distributors. Increasingly, local mushroom farms are springing up to offer close-to-home grower partnerships.

2. ONIONS AS STAPLES

Onions round out the top five most popular pizza toppings in the U.S. and are No. 2 after mushrooms as a produce topper. Fortyeight percent of the 6,000-plus Americans asked about their most liked pizza toppings for the 2021 YouGov poll responded with ‘onions’.

“Depending on how they’re cooked, onions can add a sweet nuance or a crisp and tangy option to your pizza toppings. The best part about pizza is there really no rules,” says René Hardwick, director of public and industry relations for the National Onion Association (NOA), in Eaton, CO.

Red slivered is the most popular cut requested by customers or prospective customers for pizza, according to Megan Jacobsen, vice president of sales and marketing for Gills Onions, in Oxnard, CA. “Onions aren’t just on top of the pizza — a lot of onions are used in tomato sauce and our onions are found there, too.”

Some of the more unique producebased toppings for pizzas are driven by the ongoing fermentation trend, says Maeve

Webster, president of Menu Matters, based in Arlington, VT. “We're seeing some pickled vegetables, from onions to pickles and sauer kraut.”

3. CRUCIFEROUS CRUNCH

Cauliflower, top or bottom, is a key trend for pizza, says Claire Conaghan, asso ciate director at Chicago, IL-headquartered Datassential. “Cauliflower is now found on nearly 8% of pizza menus and is up 351% over the past four years. It can be used as the base of a crust, roasted for topping, or even blended

for a vegan take on a white cheese sauce base.”

“Some of the most exciting uses of produce in pizza extend beyond toppings,” agrees U.S. Foods’ McCurdy. “Cauliflower pizza crust is certainly trending with diners and we’re seeing many restaurant operators ordering pre-made cauliflower crust from us or perfecting their own in-house cauliflower pizza crust recipe.”

Other cruciferous veggies also trending include Brussels sprouts (1.8% of menus, +7% over the past four years), broccoli rabe (2.8% of menus, +14%), and broccolini (1.0% of menus,

+30% over the past four years), according to Datassential.

4. STREET CORN

High-impact prep is being applied to vege tables on pizza, meaning a lot of roasted toma toes, peppers, mushrooms and onions, says Menu Matters’ Webster. “We're even seeing growth in roasted corn.”

The most unique pizza of the past year in Datassential’s database is Round Table’s Street Taco Pizza, says Conaghan. “Sixty-five percent of consumers said it was very or extremely unique and 50% said they would definitely or probably buy it. The pizza is topped with charred corn, chorizo, tomatoes, crema, crisp tortilla strips, green onions, three-cheese blend, salsa Roja, and lime wedges.”

Round Table Pizza, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, operates over 400 restaurants. The Street Taco Pizza was offered as an LTO (limited time offer) in the spring of 2021, coinciding with Cinco de Mayo.

Beyond sweet corn, consumers are also seeking more heat, according to Farmer’s Daughter Consulting’s Myrdal Miller. “Chile peppers are a topping option you’ll see more often — sometimes as fresh toppings and also as house-made sauces for topping the pizza as an alternative to the ubiquitous crushed red pepper flakes.”

5. PEPPERY GREENS

Arugula is also appearing more as a fresh finish to a cooked pizza, says Myrdal Miller. “The sharpness of the peppery arugula on top of a pizza offsets the richness of the cheese.”

Adding fresh arugula to the pizza after it is baked, so the arugula is lightly steamed on the top of the pizza works out very well, recom mends U.S. Foods’ McCurdy. “Tossing the arugula in olive oil and lemon or a restaurant’s house dressing and piling it on top of the pizza can add so much flavor, color, and a different little twist to the experience.”

6. GREEN GOLD: AVOCADOS

Avocado menu penetration has grown 26% in the last decade, reaching just over half (50.8%) of U.S. restaurants offering avocado and/or guacamole on the menu, according to data supplied by the Irvine, CA-headquartered California Avocado Commission (CAC). What’s more, avocado menu penetration in the pizza segment has seen a 155% increase over this same time.

“Avocados complement savory and spicy pizza toppings, adding visual appeal and a healthy halo,” says Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketing.

A great example is the Avocado Carpaccio Pizza served a few years ago at Jean-Georges

Beverly Hills, an upscale restaurant located at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and named for celebrity chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

“The Avocado Carpaccio Pizza is made with homemade pizza dough, sweet onion shaved very thin, and extra virgin olive oil. Once cooked, we top it with thinly sliced, ripe, organic local avocado, and we finish the pizza with lime juice, fleur de sel (salt), chopped jalapeño, and cilantro leaves,” says Chef Steve Benjamin, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills’ culinary director.

Eighty-two percent of foodservice oper ators who use avocados choose to purchase fresh, says the CAC’s DeLyser. “Fresh avocados are best for the pizza category. Slightly under-ripe avocados are often used to hold the fruit’s shape while being cooked at high pizza oven temperatures.”

DeLyser adds research shows restaurants benefit from the halo effect when California is the source of origin. “Over 80% of consumers want an avocado source of origin stated on the menu. This is where an operator can really shine when running a seasonal LTO that features California avocados during the spring and summer season.”

According to Datassential Menu Trend research, as shared by the CAC, the proteins most commonly paired with avocado are chicken, bacon and egg. The latter two ingre dients are breakfast staples.

“We’re seeing more breakfast pizzas as an alternative option for that day part, particularly as operators try to drive a rebound here and consumers are resuming more pre-pandemic behavior during the week,” says Menu Matters’ Webster.

7. FRUIT – BEYOND PINEAPPLE

For fruit toppings, U.S. Foods’ McCurdy sees operators taking the traditional pineapple topping and adding a unique spice blend to it or grilling it to bring out the sweetness of the fruit. “This is an example of how operators can take a topping everyone is familiar with and add their touch to it, so they are differentiating the menu offering.”

Mandarin oranges are starting to appear on pizza restaurant menus. These are added to Hawaiian pizzas in addition to classic pine apple, according to Datassential’s Conaghan.

Also on a citrus theme is the second most unique pizza of the past year in Datassential’s database. This is Round Table Pizza’s Charred Lemon Chicken Pizza, which the chain intro duced in July 2021. This pizza is packed with produce. It features an original-style crust topped with a creamy lemon sauce, then spinach, a three-cheese blend, garlic, lemon pepper grilled chicken, zucchini, tomatoes and red onions. It’s finished with charred lemon

slices, shredded parmesan cheese and green onions.

Fig and prosciutto pizzas continue to be a trend, one that started in flatbread and is now gaining traction on more traditional pizza, according to Conaghan. Additions of arugula or asparagus and bleu or goat cheese are common on these builds.

Mangos are another fruit finding favor on pizzas. Mango is a global fruit that thrives in tropical climates, so chefs often look to where mangos are part of the culture, such as India, Southeast Asia, South America, Mexico, South Florida and the Philippines, for inspi ration about ingredient pairings that would work on savory and sweet pizza, says Suwann Frison, foodservice marketing manager for the Orlando, FL-based National Mango Board (NMB).

Distributors can use suggestive selling opportunities to help operators succeed with ideas for how to refresh a pizza menu with fresh mango, adds Susan Hughes, the NMB’s foodservice consultant. “For example, when mangos are in peak season, think outside the pizza box, including how mangos can replace tomatoes on pizza because of their sweet/sour flavor that pairs with typical and unexpected pizza flavors.”

Hughes adds three additional tips. “First, the flavor and texture of mango pair well with all proteins, from cheese, pork, bacon, chicken, and seafood. Secondly, mango works well with barbecue sauce, garlic rub, extra virgin olive oil, pesto, and white sauce, and thirdly, the versatility of mango also shines with different cooking techniques when charred, grilled, smoked, and even pickled.”

Finally, pizzas topped with fresh fruit and/ or vegetable items are typically more sophis ticated or flavor-forward, allowing them to command higher price points on menus, says Markon’s Ensworth. “With the staying power of the wellness trend, expect this to only increase.”

Avocado menu penetration in the pizza segment has seen a 155% increase in the last decade.

PHOTO

SIX STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL GARLIC SALES

By paying a little extra attention to garlic, produce departments can move more product.

BY JODEAN ROBBINS

Decades

ago, garlic was not a regular item on shoppers’ grocery lists. “Garlic used to be a cultural thing, but now it’s not,” says Mark Cotê, regional produce supervisor at Redner’s Markets in Reading, PA, with 44 stores. “Now everybody is cooking with garlic.”

U.S. garlic consumption has reached 2 pounds per capita and continues to steadily increase, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics.

“Garlic has continued to increase in demand in the produce department,” says Kenneth Christopher, executive vice pres ident at Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, CA. “Since the advent of the pandemic, consumers are increasingly turning to garlic as a healthy option for flavoring their food. Even with a relative state of ‘normalcy’ in relation to the start of lockdowns, demand for garlic continues to be historically high.”

Sales of fresh garlic got a bump in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, because people were cooking at home and eating healthier, explains Jim Provost, president of I Love Produce in West Grove, PA. “Through the purchase of home delivery meal kits, consumers were introduced to cooking with garlic, as well as ginger and shallots, for the first time,” he says.

Food King in Lubbock, TX, one outlet of a 160-store chain, sells a high volume of garlic. “Our demographic includes Hispanic and Indian shoppers and they use a lot of garlic,” says Bert Ramirez, produce manager. “Our shoppers will buy anywhere from three to 10 heads at a time. The majority of our customers use garlic because it’s healthy and their cuisine calls for it. Between bulk and sleeve garlic, I bring in about four cases a week. That’s a lot of garlic.”

Garlic is a staple, constant item and shop pers do seek it out. “Garlic is one of those staple items that just seems to always sell,” says Joey Granata, director of produce at FreshPro Food Distributors in West Caldwell, NJ. “Demand seems to be consistent and steady.”

Another advantage of garlic is its unique

ness. “Garlic is an item that has no other replacement,” says Bruce Klein, director of marketing for Maurice A. Auerbach Inc. in Secaucus, NJ. “It’s essential to so many recipes and you really can’t substitute any other ingre dient for it. It’s also healthy so consumers wouldn’t have the need to substitute it. In fact, garlic can be used as a substitute for other higher fat flavorings.”

Year-round supply of garlic from various sources allows buyers to keep shelves stocked. U.S. garlic production is concentrated in California, with smaller acreages in Oregon, Nevada, Washington and New York. The U.S. is also the world’s largest importer of garlic, primarily from China, Argentina and Mexico.

“California garlic starts around June/July and Argentina is available around December,” says Klein. “Mexico supply starts in April/ May and then we’re back to California again. We follow the different growing regions of garlic so we can get the freshest garlic to our customers.”

Here are six ways retailers can boost their sales of garlic:

1. BE INTENTIONAL WITH DISPLAYS

Garlic is no longer an afterthought. Stores who put deliberate thought into location and size of the garlic display will see results. “Anecdotally, I have noticed garlic displays have grown in size over the last 20 years,” says

Provost. “As a friend used to say, ‘Pile it high, and let it fly’. The growth of the category and the margins enjoyed by the retail sector justify the space.”

Garlic should start with a base display where shoppers can always find it. “Bulk garlic is best sold with the onions and potatoes,” says Food King’s Ramirez. “Customers look for it there, so we want them to always be able to find it. We see good movement in that base display location.”

Stores should also use secondary displays. “Of course, garlic is displayed within your hardware sections, but displaying with the avocados and tomatoes works well too,” says Granata. “And, stores can also tie it in by the seafood departments to capture more sales.”

Christopher suggests displaying fresh garlic in wooden bins, next to the avocados and tomatoes, where garlic’s white color is an excellent tool for color blocking.

2. ENSURE IT’S CLEAN & ATTRACTIVE

Though garlic is not as perishable as other produce items, store personnel should remain diligent in cleaning and rotating the garlic displays. “The most important elements of a good garlic display are having fresh, clean displays and cleaning loose skin off where possible,” says FreshPro’s Granata.

Attractive displays encourage purchase. “Stores must rotate it and make sure it looks

Garlic is no longer an afterthought. Stores who put deliberate thought into location and size of the garlic display will see results.

PHOTO COURTESY CHRISTOPHER RANCH.

merchandising review Garlic

good on the shelf,” agrees Auerbach’s Klein. “The consumer might buy two heads if it looks good rather than only one if the display is messy. A clean, attractive display sells more. If you clean up the display and make it look good, the consumer is more apt to purchase more product. You want the product to look as best as possible on the shelf.”

Garlic skins tend to shed, especially as consumers handle them, so cleaning up the loose skins is essential. Departments must manicure garlic, asserts Cotê of Redner’s. “Just like onions, if you see more onion skins than onions, it’s a turn off and the same is true for garlic,” he says.

3. OFFER VARIETY

Increasing demand for garlic has resulted in a host of garlic options at retail, and Ramirez emphasizes it’s important to have a variety of product to hit each consumer need. “It’s about putting together a mix for everyone,” he says. “We do bulk, sleeves, jars and some other value-added presentations. We also offer braids on a seasonal basis — a garlic braid is more of a novelty and a fall item.”

Displaying a variety of garlic options together will help shoppers. “Make a one-stop shop for consumers so they can find their bulk garlic, packaged garlic, jar garlic and other garlic-related products in one area,” says Provost of I Love Produce.

Klein explains some of the variety of garlic presentations and varieties. “We handle bagged garlic, custom packed, from eight ounce to 10 pounds,” he says. “There is also Elephant garlic, which is a close relative of the leek. Elephant garlic is typically sweeter, milder and larger than standard types of garlic. We also sell individually netted head packed garlic. Then there are the garlic braids, which are long-stemmed garlic bulbs woven together into a decorative braid. Other presentations include clam shells.”

A variety of garlic products caters to various consumer niches. “Garlic is a staple, but can also be an impulse item,” says Provost. “Chinese garlic has a price point that will attract budget-conscious consumers, while premium garlic products like Black Garlic, Elephant garlic and Super Colossal Spain and California garlic have a higher end niche.”

Christopher points out the opportunity to promote organic and U.S.-grown. “Garlic is most profitable for retailers when they select organic, fresh garlic bulbs,” he says. “Consumers are willing to pay a premium for organic, American-grown produce. When retailers use clear country of origin labeling that highlights locally grown produce, consumers gravitate to those products.”

Cotê sees organic garlic growing in

demand. “Over the last 10 years, we’re selling a lot more organic,” he says. “It really pushes the category and gives it a boost.”

4. INCLUDE FRESH VALUE-ADDED

At one time, value-added garlic was just jars, but new technology and options take this convenience to a new level. For example, Auerbach offers packaged organic and conven tional peeled garlic for retail. “These products offer convenience to the consumer, yet still have a fresh taste,” says Klein. “Shoppers can buy six or eight ounces of peeled garlic and use it as needed. It’s a matter of convenience. ”

While processed garlic may have a long shelf life, Christopher comments on how the preservatives in it tend to give the garlic a more citric taste. “For retailers who want to promote true garlic flavors, they should focus on fresh and pre-peeled garlic,” he says. “This garlic has the flavors most consumers are looking for. Processed garlic may be conve nient, but it doesn’t offer true garlic flavor.”

Redner’s includes fresh peeled garlic as an option for its shoppers. “We buy the large fourpound containers of peeled garlic, break them down and repack them into smaller packs,” says Cotê. “It makes a better price-point for our shoppers and better pricing for us.”

Christopher advises stores to showcase peeled and roasted garlic in the refrigerated section of their displays. “It’s important to maintain the cold chain for these products, from production to distribution and to the point of sale,” he says.

Food King offers peeled value-added garlic, but Ramirez says it can be hit or miss due to the price. “Some customers like it, but others would rather buy the bulk and peel it them selves,” he says. “There is a niche demographic for it, so we carry it.”

5. EXPAND PROMOTABLE PERIODS

Retailers should be aware of the ebb and flow of garlic supply and promotion opportunity. “Garlic is not a big promotable item that will generate lots of sales, but good times to promote include during the Lenten season, in the fall and at Christmas,” says FreshPro’s Granata.

Provost expects good garlic availability from the Northern Hemisphere growing

It’s important to have a variety of garlic products, like a garlic braid, to hit each consumer need.

PHOTO COURTESY

merchandising review Garlic

regions. “This means garlic will be promotable from August through December, the peak of the fall cooking and holiday period,” he says. “This year will be a good year to particularly promote garlic for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanks giving, Hanukkah and Christmas.”

Though garlic tends to be used more in the colder months when people cook inside, retail can promote in the summer as well, suggests Auerbach’s Klein. “Consumers increasingly use garlic in marinades and barbecues,” he says. “Stores can look to up their promotion and merchandising for the summer grilling season.”

6. ADVOCATE BANG FOR THE BUCK

In the tight economy, garlic offers a savory, healthy meal addition for relatively low cost.

“Garlic offers the most bang for your buck when it comes to adding additional flavor to just about any dish,” says Christopher. “A couple of cloves of garlic can transform a meal, giving consumers exceptional value.”

Stores can promote various garlic pack aging as a good value. “A five-bulb netted garlic has a great price point and value for the consumer,” says Provost. “Shoppers can buy a week to a month’s supply of garlic at an afford able retail price.”

Promoting particular bulk price strate gies can also attract cost-conscious shoppers. “Fresh garlic bulbs can be sold at two for $1 to maximize sales,” says Christopher. “Consumers will feel like they’re getting a deal and retailers will enjoy increased throughput.”

Redner’s Cotê points out garlic is relatively

inexpensive to begin with. “So, most of the time, the price on bulk garlic is accessible to shoppers,” he says. “Setting up some ads for garlic would also be advantageous. ” pb

Offering a wide variety of garlic products in eye-catching retail displays can increase sales.

The Bronx's Vital Growth Engine

BY MIKE DUFF

The Hunts Point Produce Market continues to face new challenges in 2022 — inflation, labor issues, fuel costs and freight rates — but the consensus among members of the wholesale cooperative is they’ll take the hurdles in stride.

Challenges are nothing new for the co-op, which has been operating since 1967 in the Bronx. And, despite the economic gloom hanging over the country, a break in the clouds emerged with a promise made by New York City Mayor Eric Adams for $100 million in future market funding. And that’s not all. Phillip Grant, Hunts Point Market chief exec utive, says the market has also applied for a federal grant for funds that could propel enor mous change.

How the money will eventually change the market is a question of how much actu ally reaches its coffers. Even a little can help the market address infrastructure issues, but if enough actually emerges, the potential for what would essentially be a new market isn’t out of the question, Grant says, although it would require more than a $600 million investment.

Whatever emerges, the prospects for some significant funding seem more than fair.

“For the mayor to be here in his first couple of months and to put out that commitment is important. For us, on the operation side, that’s a positive indication that the city is thinking about the market,” Grant says. “We need new infrastructure to feed this region.”

The city, with the support of the market, submitted a federal grant proposal May 23, which, if approved, could provide an extra $450 million.

In the meantime, Grant says, as do a lot of wholesalers, the market is working on those efficiencies it can and staffing appropriately to keep operations moving. He says business lost to the pandemic is coming back to the market, and, in conjunction with co-op members, the

— Joel Fierman, Fierman Produce Exchange, and co-president of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Co-Operative Association Inc.

administration is working to improve commu nity outreach and help people in New York understand the role Hunts Point operators play in keeping the city and region fed and healthy.

According to Joel Fierman, president at Fierman Produce Exchange and co-president of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Co-Op erative Association Inc., while the funding from the city is much appreciated, the market still faces an uphill battle to secure adequate funding for a full renovation.

“While we appreciate the generosity of the City of New York, we still need a significant amount more,” he says. “The estimated cost of building a new market is between $600 to $900 million, so we’re a little short. It’s the market’s intent to try to raise the balance of the capital, whether through state or federal funding. But all these programs take time and years.”

Fierman notes the ongoing conundrum of securing funding, yet continuing to support a crucial business.

With potential infusion of funds from the city and state, the Hunts Point Market and its merchants are primed for a future of renewal.

“We need a new market to keep these businesses here. If we don’t figure out something, we’re going to lose these businesses to elsewhere.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF D'ARRIGO NEW YORK

Salesman Alex Marte of A.J. Trucco takes care of a customer's order from the dock at Hunts Point.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TRUCCO.

“I’ve been in this market for 45 years, and 20 of those years we’ve been talking about a new market,” he says. “It’s difficult at this point to see how we turn the corner from talk to action. This market is still a viable economic machine, working tirelessly to make prices affordable. Why would anyone want to jeopar dize it by not giving us the resources we need? During the pandemic, we were one of the few businesses that stayed open continually to provide essential food. We need a new market to keep these businesses here. If we don’t figure out something, we’re going to lose these busi nesses to elsewhere.”

DNA MADE FOR OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

After dealing with the depths of the coro navirus in 2020, its resurgence in 2021 and a labor strike, the market has faced a fresh crop of challenges. But Gabriela D’Arrigo, vice president, at D’Arrigo New York, says it is part of the market’s history to address headwinds, and market merchants are used to getting through rough times.

“We’re not making drastic, huge changes that affect the day-to-day business,” she says. “There have been changes in labor that have been difficult, particularly with drivers. That was one challenge, and even having vehicles come available.”

As a wholesaler, D’Arrigo New York sells products from its sister grower operation, D’Arrigo Bros. Co., in Salinas, CA, such as its popular Andy Boy brand. D’Arrigo doesn’t expect significant changes in the approach to crops this year, and says the mindset is one of getting things done most efficiently.

“We’re keeping things as simple as possible,” D’Arrigo says. “We’ve already made adjustments with our safety protocols, and we’re moving forward and doing what we do to maintain things. We’ll lean into our rela tionships we’ve had for generations. If some thing comes up, we’ll have more discussions and find a solution. Customers tell us what they need and what challenges they face, and we’ll go to shippers and ask what they can do to help us with our challenges. We’ll get together and share the burden.”

Fierman credits his supply base as important cooperators in overcoming chal lenges. “The Fierman supply base has been fantastic,” he says. “They have worked and absorbed some of the costs that normally would be passed on. Like most people in the ag business, they really are selfless. They give

more than any industry I’ve ever seen. They modify pricing and offset truck expenses; they’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty. There should be a lot of accolades out there for the U.S. grower. They should be rewarded instead of saddled with more regulations.”

Cary Rubin, vice president of Rubin Brothers, agrees that, even with the pandemic and macroeconomic turmoil, the business hasn’t fundamentally changed and always comes with its challenges.

“I’ve always felt that there are constant challenges, from a supply chain point of view,” Rubin says. “Clearly, things have stepped up in the past year or so as it relates to expenses. The cost of fuel directly impacts the freight market. Basically, every non-produce vendor we have has put in multiple price increases. Because we sell a lot of value-added product, we’ve

Jessica D'Orazio does buying and selling at E. Armata.

A&J's John Thomas Bonomola, Stephanie Tramutola and John Paul Tramutola stand in front of a memorial of "Big John" Tramutola Sr, who was a founding member of the company.

Gabriela (left) and Gianna D'Arrigo of D'Arrigo New York were among market representatives at a recent "Spring Fling" event, hosted by the Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation.

seen price increases from produce companies that sell us on a firm price basis. We’ve done our best to pass those along without killing the customer, but also allowing us to make a reasonable profit. Then it’s like anything else in America — it’s an inflationary pressure. Obvi ously, people are feeling it.”

The fundamental business hasn’t changed at A&J Produce, even as a new generation takes a more prominent position within the company. That isn’t to say, however, the pandemic didn’t cause certain factors as it overwhelmed the New York region.

“Reaching out to get customers has gotten more difficult,” says John Paul Tramutola, salesman. “Nobody wants to open their door. You keep plugging away and making sure that you’re there for them to answer the phone or face to face. You’ve got to make sure you have what they want.”

The pandemic also discouraged some customers from physically going to the market.

“Some of the customers stopped coming, and they want to see pictures instead of actu ally coming to look at the product,” says John Robert Tramutola III, salesman. “But you still have a good amount of customers who come to the store every day and look, and then they’ll call and make a purchase.”

Fierman points out the importance of supporting the local supply chain, especially in the current economic environment. “Some chains put priority on supporting national brands and won’t readily support the local supply chain because it doesn’t encompass the big national brand,” he says.

“However, in the middle of such high

inflation, how can retailers not support the local industry? Chains should be supporting the local and regional suppliers and distrib utors who pulled the industry through the crazy years we just all experienced. National brands have a place but there needs to be some vision of how retail can support the local and regional supply chain as well.”

TIMES HAVE CHANGED

As much as circumstances outside the business structure have affected the market, so has the way interactions and operations have developed. The give-and-take that once occurred is less a factor in the market than once was the case, and more business is being done on the basis of electronic communica tions and specs.

For example, John Thomas Bonomolo, A&J’s office manager, says the way orders are placed has changed. “We use [bluetooth-en abled] air printers now because we get so many text messages,” he says. “They just print the text off the phone, and they take the order like that.”

As such, the wholesalers are essentially required to do quality control that was once part of the buying process when customers came to the docks. In many cases, customers today stay home and have purchases delivered. At the same time, the evolution of business is prompting Hunts Point wholesalers to look at other distributors as a source of more business for retailers and foodservice operators who need their services.

At C&J Brothers, mitigation of risk is critical, says Matthew Park, chief executive. Although it may be necessary, a conservative approach to operations has ramifications that ripple through the supply chain.

“I think we’re going to see that even from

our suppliers,” Park says. “As these guys are starting to plan for the next season, what I worry about is whether they going to plant that additional acreage.”

If not, higher prices will result. Already, he says suppliers and service providers express concerns about the viability of future opera tions.

Joshua Gatcke, general manager at Nathel & Nathel, says the company was able to come through the COVID-19 pandemic and the market strike in fair shape and maintained good relations with workers despite the diffi culties. However, he says, confronting the ensuing turbulence was problematic.

“The cost of freight, fuel, produce and the logistical challenges — it all became a major issue last year and forced us to rethink our pricing structure,” Gatcke says. “We know the challenges our suppliers are facing, and our customers are facing the mirror image of their issues. Everyone is feeling the pressure.”

Gatcke says transparency and communica tion are more important than ever, so everyone along the supply chain understands the posi tion of the others.

“Everyone understands these are relation ships — relationships we’ve had for 10, 20, 30 years — and they’re more important,” he says.

“We know the challenges our suppliers are facing, and our customers are facing the mirror image of their issues. Everyone is feeling the pressure.”

— Joshua Gatcke, Nathel & Nathel

Joel (left) and Billy Fierman head up Fierman Produce Exchange.

Denise Goodman is the vice president and secretary of M&R Tomato Distributors.

At E. Armata Inc., easing supply chain issues and letting customers know what their options are at any given time has been a way to help the company deal with the ever-changing market conditions.

“We’ve had to navigate very tactically, think outside the box, find new and creative ways to service the customer,” says Michael Armata, berry sales manager. “Our goal is to make the customers’ lives easier, whether it’s by offering different levels of quality, delivering them in a timely manner and even tracking our trucks

to give them the best estimate of their orders’ arrival.”

“The industry as a whole had to make significant changes,” adds Armata. “All levels of customers can feel the difference in how and what they are purchasing. Some have shifted to being more commodity-driven. So, if stem tomatoes are cheap and every thing else is through the roof, people can shift. With our information, we try to guide them on what item is cheaper, but can still be used for what they need it for. Whether

they are foodservice, a wholesaler or a retail store, they have all changed their buying habits."

Fuel costs are suppressing margins and making life more difficult, but Armata says his company continues to address a tough market period through cooperation. Consumers may not consider — or may not have considered in the past — how much fuel costs impact the price they pay for the fruits and vegeta bles they eat, but he says they have begun to understand.

Now is a period when mutual under standing and support have to prop up the produce supply chain. At the end of the supply chain, it may be tough to sell strawber ries for $9.99 a clamshell, Armata observes, so everyone has to step up to the plate and push product through at margins that leave each participant with a bit of profit, but make for a final price consumers can stomach.

Peter Faraci, sales manager, Coosemans New York, put it in perspective: “The past two years have been very, very different, where we’re changing up the business, changing to target supermarkets. The restaurants are coming back, but the inflation is insane. As a company, you try to take on the expenses, the extra expenses, as best as is possible, but it just gets to the point when it becomes over bearing, and you have to increase your prices. Our shippers, too, are starting to change fuel charges.”

The company retains a major foodservice customer base, and had to adjust during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when restaurants were shuttered. Now, many of its customers are foodservice operators who themselves are trying to maintain business in the face of troubles the pandemic ignited.

“Business has just been like a roller coaster,” says Ray Hernandez, a buyer for Coosemans. “Specifically for us, the restaurant side hasn’t fully recovered.”

Not only did thousands of restaurants close permanently, he says, but also much of the workforce has not returned to the work

“The only way for us to mitigate costs is to try to do more volume. We’re always happy to do a delivery. But what that demands is for us to put in more complementary product."

— Daniel Barabino, Top Banana

place where they once visited foodservice operators for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still, Hernandez says, people are getting out more, and that’s what the business has to embrace.

“You have to take a positive out of some thing,” he says. “So, you have to say, at least it’s better than 2021. There is improvement, but there are different challenges.”

Daniel Barabino, vice president at Top Banana, emphasizes inflation, as it applies to the consumer, complicates everything else that pressures the market, particularly since consumers, who have been incrementally dealing with higher grocery bills, aren’t neces sarily enjoying larger paychecks. In his case, a direct result of inflation is fewer sales of 3-pound banded bananas.

“People are taking exactly what they need for the week,” he says.

Barabino says it’s the core of the business — relationships — that count when chal lenges abound.

Barabino says the cost of fuel, as it has risen and now stands, is “almost staggering.” To deal with the circumstances, Top Banana has been trying to bring inventory in on more of a just-in-time basis and not hold items in trailers.

“Sometimes, it’s unavoidable,” he says. “The only way for us to mitigate costs is to try to do more volume. We’re always happy to do a delivery. But what that demands is for us to put in more complementary product. If a customer wants just bananas delivered, we will ask them to take some plantains, too. We are trying different things, mixing in different items, and developing relationships. Our game is always volume. That’s how the equa tion works. Some people have flexibility on pricing. We don’t have that. We simply have to put more on a truck.”

BENEFITS OF RISING CONSUMPTION

The positive side of the past couple of years has been a renewed interest in nutrition, cooking at home and healthier snacking that will have long-term benefits for consumers, and particularly children who have been growing up with more fruits and vegetables in their diets.

According to Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president at S. Katzman Produce, “that increase across the board for fresh fruit and vegetable consumption is tremendous for our industry and therefore for us in the supply chain.”

“We’re in charge of distributing all that product to all of the stores. You have big retail and you have small mom-and-pops. We have all those independent retailers in those far-toreach areas of the city and the whole tri-state

area that we get the fresh fruit and vegetables out to. So, we’ve seen an overall increase in business because consumption has gone up.”

Even so, she notes, costs have gone up too, so challenges include moving product to where it needs to be while dealing with a shortage of equipment and labor, longer time lines, and inflation.

“People have become conscious of what they spend their money on,” Katzman says. “So, while they’ve increased the amount of money they spend on fresh fruits and vegeta bles over the past few years, now what they’re focusing on is high quality and high-flavor, because they want to make sure they’re getting their money’s worth.”

“You don’t mind paying for something if it is good, so they’re not as price-conscious when they shop for produce in the stores — as long as what they get, they can use,” she adds. “While we might not maintain those same margins, I think we’re still going to maintain the business, because I think consumers still want good product. What we need to do is get better at giving them what they want — good quality and good flavor.”

Though Fierman started out mainly as a potato and onion house when the Hunts Point Market was founded in 1967, the company has diversified and has acquired other specialty operations. Now the company offers a wide range of products to meet the demands for higher consumption. Fierman views the market as a broader distribution center that retailers can use to take advan tage of opportunities in pricing, quality and other options.

“There’s always an opportunity,” Fierman says. “It really comes down to if retailers want to take advantage of these opportunities. I can

change my price in 24 hours; I can change my price in a matter of minutes. But the guys who contract out can’t change their prices. At the market, retailers can take advantage of the abundance of available healthy product that can be distributed at an economical price level, as well as the flexibility we have.”

ERA OF TECHNOLOGY

At C&J Brothers, Park says technology is a way to cope with market challenges.

“We definitely see an increased need for the right type of technology. That’s been a big focus for us,” he says. “Everything has its kinks, but we’re trying to have the right tech nology and software in place to keep up with customer demands and the changing needs of buying FOB, bringing things here and deliv ering them.”

D’Arrigo New York is using technology to drive efficiency, including in trucking. With a limited number of available drivers and a limited number of working hours, the company is keeping a better eye on drivers, improving operations and working to make

Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president, and Bardo Salazar, buyer/salesman of tropicals for S. Katzman Produce.

PHOTO COURTESY OF S. KATZMAN PRODUCE

Joshua Gatcke, general manager of Nathel & Nathel.

loading more efficient so a driver can get back to base and, potentially, make a second delivery

“If you do all the little things right, every thing will be OK,” D’Arrigo says.

D’Arrigo says technological investments had been made incrementally across the market. Now, it’s more a matter of enhancing effi ciency and aligning technology with customer needs, such as improving communications and methods. By monitoring delivery trucks, for example, D’Arrigo can ensure efficiency and boost communication to customers who want to have a better sense of when deliveries arrive.

Top Banana’s Barabino says technology is developing, with more customization, to better track inventory, as well as trucks. Tech nology also helps improve communication so customers know when their deliveries will arrive and wholesalers know more about what’s going on with suppliers, so both parties can accommodate each other under changing conditions.

Gatcke says technology is a challenge because much of what is out there doesn’t exactly suit how the market in general and Nathel & Nathel does business, or necessarily contribute to real-time realities. However, the company moved to Microsoft Teams so everyone in the organization is communi cating through a centralized platform rather than through random text message chats.

“That’s been an incredible tool,” Gatcke says.

E. Armata Inc. is among the market players that adopted warehouse technology. “Every thing in our store is tracked with the RF guns,” Armata says. “Finding things is faster, picking for customers is quicker and easier.”

Technology helps the company right down to the delivery, because it helps them

maximize truckloads and tracks vehicles in a way that allows communication about when customers will receive product, he adds.

The tech evolution of A&J Produce opera tions is primarily internal, but also extends the company’s presence via social media.

“Everything is scanned,” says Stephanie Tramutola, A&J accounts payable and social media coordinator. “We used to be just pen and paper. That’s no longer a thing anymore.”

She also said the company has stepped up its use of social media — Instagram, Face book and LinkedIn — “to keep up with our competitors, but also fit into this new digital age where we can have a footprint of our own.”

To an extent, social media can even encourage some of the dialogue with

customers that’s been lost on the market plat forms. “That’s a huge thing we encourage,” Stephanie Tramutola says. “We want the open feedback. We want the comments. We want the likes. We want people to reach out to us.”

TACKLING LABOR

Labor is an ongoing issue that affects the Hunts Point Produce Market on multiple levels.

At Top Banana, Barabino says the labor issue carries downward to the company’s service providers, as some companies involved with the market aren’t even taking on more work because they can’t find drivers or have a hard time finding the parts they need to keep trucks on the road.

“We’re trying to mix in other carriers to keep business going, but it takes a long-term mindset,” he says. “We are building a broader network of trucks. For pineapples, we hired a young man who has his own truck. He’s hungry, and he does five loads a week along side our original guy, who does five.”

Barabino says getting productive labor is tough, but the company relies on its expe rienced employees to bring along younger workers.

“We have to lean on their expertise,” he says. “We have three guys who have 150 years’ experience. When they get new guys, they have to teach them how to handle the product, learn about the logistics. It’s trial by fire, but by having someone there to guide you, there’s no better way to learn. That’s how we bring people along.”

Nick Pacia, president and chief executive of A.J. Trucco and Trucco Inc., says employee

Harris Mercier of Fierman Produce Exchange.

Fierman's assistant foreman Jimmy Louden checks the brix level of a new shipment of watermelon.

retention is critical. “The past few months have been difficult for sure,” he says. “We at Trucco do our best to keep our employees for a long time.”

CUSTOMER RELATIONS

Customer service has always been critical in doing business on the Hunts Point market, particularly with the choices grocery and food service operations have when it comes to supply.

“We deliver more product if a customer needs that,” says Rubin Bros.’ Cary Rubin. “We’re there to help them on the retail side

of things. We have customers where we’ll assist in their retail setup. At the end of the day, it’s just being on top of things, not taking anything for granted.”

In the pandemic, he says, a lot of customers struggled and needed help even to remain in business and so, to retain customers, delivery became more common and even smaller drops throughout the week became necessary. That’s one reason why so many wholesalers have emphasized logistics technology to help them keep related costs as low as possible.

As Fierman strives to meet customer expectations, the company confronts the same constraints as everyone else in the marketplace.

“Just because I'm local doesn’t mean I still don't incur significant expenses to deliver service,” says Fierman. “It costs me $120 just in tolls to put a truck across the bridge, and I'm paying $7 per gallon for diesel fuel. There is an added expense to make that delivery a possibility.”

When he started in the business 45

years ago, people wanted to take advantage of walking the market, but today Fierman sees a shift to delivery. “You have to look at things from a practical standpoint, as well as what customers want. Over the last few years, customers have moved more toward delivery, but delivery doesn’t come cheap.”

Armata says that he’s focused on such factors as flexibility and cooperation so the company can continue to serve the full range of its customers and keep everyone involved in or with the business viable.

“Big customers, small customers, we value them no matter what,” he says. “We have appreciation for our employees and our ship pers and our customers for sticking with us.”

At A&J, John Paul Tramutolo says rela tionships are based on communication and connections. “I check my email 400 times on the way home, because you can’t be late to respond or you don’t get the order. You just have to check it constantly.”

PRODUCT AND PROVENANCE

Park of C&J, says, given the risks associ ated with shipping and final returns, growers are going to find local distribution more attractive and look in that direction when making decisions about where to ship.

Likewise, local produce is linked to what consumers perceive as something better.

In a larger sense, quality is important and can provide produce purveyors an edge, Katzman says. Consumers, and younger consumers in particular, care about sustain ability, how farms take care of the land, and

“We have customers where we’ll assist in their retail setup. At the end of the day, it’s just being on top of things, not taking anything for granted.”

— Cary Rubin, Rubin Bros.

food safety, and they want access to informa tion about those factors.

“They care about everything that’s going into producing this food; they care about good quality food, then they care about good flavor,” she says. “If you give them all of those things, they’re not going to have a problem paying for it.”

Katzman says the change in consumer awareness of healthier, more flavorful food is going to be a big driver in produce, citing the demand now in the retail sector for her compa

ny’s organic turmeric, something that only previously generated demand in foodservice.

The pandemic has made most businesses more conservative, still Hunts Point market suppliers continue trying new things to develop the next hot product or build a lucra tive niche.

“The hothouse side of things seems to be an industry trying to come out with the next best item, because they control their growing environment a little bit differently,” Rubin says. “The salad guys are always trying to create

something new. I have noticed they have been quicker to discontinue items that don’t work, which I think is a good thing.”

To some extent, new products don’t neces sarily mean new varieties of fruits and vegeta bles, but items that are reconfigured to meet new dynamics.

Katzman says some customers are asking for more value-added packaging because they don’t want the labor to do it themselves, where they used to pack it up themselves in the back of the store.

Home delivery businesses are also on the rise, she adds. “For us, they’re just another retail business, but they’re virtual, so, because they’re short on labor, they need a way to package product when they repack it into boxes. They’re asking for a lot of single-item packages: ‘I need to have my one head of lettuce in a bag. I need to have three tomatoes in a bag.’”

Brands continue to play a role as a way for wholesalers to create and meet expectations, and D’Arrigo, with its Andy Boy brand, has experienced the advantages of providing a consistent label with effective market pricing.

“It depends on the item, but for the most part, brand and label is very important in the New York area market,” D’Arrigo says. “Shop pers look for brands that have been continu ally produced and that provide quality product. And the branded item is not always the most expensive one. Thats another advantage of buying from the market."

THE YEAR AHEAD

Top Banana’s Barabino says since the beginning of the pandemic, planning has been incredibly difficult and he looks forward to “a little bit more consistency in the market.”

“I want to see things to swerve toward getting back to a relative normal,” he says, “when I know at the beginning of month what will happen in three weeks. Last year, I couldn’t. I want to be in a better position to serve customers.”

“Shoppers look for brands that have been continually produced and that provide quality product. And the branded item is not always the most expensive one. Thats another advantage of buying from the market.”

— Gabriela D'Arrigo, D'Arrigo New York

Katzman says she’s excited for the produce business, based on how people are delving into healthy eating, and points to changes in government regulations, in programs like SNAP and WIC, and the White House-sponsored Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September, where coordinators are focusing on how to improve nutrition for the population.

“There is so much focus on our industry in a positive way. It is primed and ready to take off, and that’s what I’m most excited for, being there to continue to be a part of it and help propel it forward.”

As he prepares for the year ahead, Park wants to focus on building the best staff he can, to put himself in an advantageous posi tion to respond to anything.

“We continue to really focus on our people,” he says. “We want to make sure we have the right talent, the best talent out there, to weather any type of storm that might come our way. At the end of the day, it sounds cliche, but it always really boils down to the people you have with you.

“How can we make sure we have the best talent and retain the best talent?”

Nathel & Nathel is working to maintain an equilibrium that will allow it to work with customers and suppliers effectively and successfully — and strengthen relationships.

“We want to get through a difficult period, and then have our customers and suppliers think we’re a great partner, and we were there when they needed us, and that’s how we’ll go forward,” Gatcke says.

For Coosemans, the year ahead means

working with customers as the foodservice industry in the New York area gets back on track.

“We just continue to do what we do and, hopefully, people get back to work,” Hernandez says. “That’s the main thing, that the economy gets a little settled. We’re restaurant-oriented. We cater to foodservice and purveyors who service restaurants. We’re dependent on people being back to work and out and about.”

Fierman believes Hunts Point needs to do a better job in showing customers how to use the market. “This market still has a very major role in the tri-state area and for the growers across the country,” he says. “This market can absorb a lot of product and get it out on a very economical basis. Even if our costs are higher

than most, it’s still more economical than a big box store. And we can react faster. We can change prices and react to what is happening in the market.”

MARKET FUTURE

The ability of Hunts Point Market whole salers to work with diverse sources and get product to customers who want quality products, but who need support in getting it to their stores and restaurants, is something co-op members have emphasized for a long time, Katzman says.

“Because of how things exist and how things are going to continue to exist, I think the market is still important and will always be important,” she says. “With the increase in costs, having a market in the middle to help with distribution saves costs for both the grower and the retailer. We can do it more efficiently than the growers could themselves, and the retailers can’t buy enough to do it themselves, so adding that extra layer of us in the middle helps both of them both be more efficient. It doesn’t add cost. It actually cuts it.”

Katzman says a new market is needed, and she’s gratified the city has looked to invest in that, with the hope that the state and federal government will follow. The limitations the older infrastructure has created hasn’t stopped Katzman from investing in areas such as tech nology, but, at the same time, the facility limits efficiency.

“Whether we get a new one or not, I know we are going to continue to do well and grow and be there for our customers and our growers because we’ve been doing it for this long.”

Park says, although there has been a wait for market reinvestment, it is necessary to keep the market competitive and to bring it up to date with developing business practices.

A&J team members (l to r): Woody Ba, Anthony Capasso, Anthony Capasso, Jr., and Angel Rubio.

Anthony Andreani, Buyer/ Sales of Katzman Produce, inspects a box of tomatoes upon arrival.

PHOTO COURTESY OF S.

PRODUCE

Improvements that ensure a consistent cold chain have to be part of any market project, says Bonomolo of A&J Produce.

“Enclose the whole place,” he says. “Close this all in, so when a truck backs in, the cold chain is not broken. You’ve got the same temperature all around. Yesterday, it was 97 degrees, and, if we’ve got strawberries on the platform, even for five minutes, they start melting.”

Over at Nathel & Nathel, Gatcke says that seeing attention come to the Hunts Point Market has to be regarded as a positive, even if a sensible caution is warranted. He leans on the side of retrofitting the market, as much of the physical plant is working well, he says, and individual co-op members have made signifi cant investments in their own properties.

Fierman urges cautious progress as well. “The market’s been in my blood for 45 years and it’s been in my family for more than 100 years,” he says. “I want only to see the market prosper. However, I don’t need a shiny new bicycle to know I do a good job to get to work. So, let’s not build a shiny new bicycle if we can’t afford to keep it going.”

A plan to use available surrounding space, much of it housing containers now used for ancillary storage, could bring the market up to modern standards of efficiency. Like wise, introducing solar and other means of powering the facility, while shutting down diesel container storage, would be another benefit a retrofit could introduce, one that could improve the market’s sustainability position and help promote better health in the community.

Grant says market management continues to make any ongoing improvements it can, for example, replacing conventional lighting with LED, and starting a cool roof initiative as a way of cutting energy costs. The market also is looking forward to the opening of the

connector from the Sheraton Expressway, which will help trucks get from the local highway system more directly to the market.

However, just what the next phase of market development entails is largely a matter of what funds become available, Grant says.

“We’re in this facility since 1967,” he points out. “Until there is some other facility, we have to keep this one going to sustain what we do here and feed New York.”

Whatever occurs, Grant says, an influx of cash can start a process of substantial improve ment in the facility.

“A new facility depends on the level of funding,” he says. “The $100 million is a great anchoring point, but we do need other sources of funding. This will determine whether we get a new market or some other form of revitaliza tion. That’s going to be the real key.”

Rubin says the pledge of $100 million was somewhat vague in terms of use, and is only a starting point.

“Clearly, the market is old, but it’s still functioning, and it’s functioning well,” he says.

“We have businesses that have consolidated. Owners take care of their own facilities. The market takes care of the property itself. At the end of the day, it just costs more money to maintain it.”

He notes the city has gone to lengths to create a food center with the money spent on the fish and meat market, which, with Hunts Point, has attracted other distribution busi nesses to the South Bronx.

“There’s no reason why this place shouldn’t be the food distribution source for the tri-state area or one of them,” Rubin says. “It makes sense to invest here.”

Wholesalers in the market generally want to see, at the very least, some basic facility maintenance issues addressed, more and better refrigerated space, local logistical infrastruc ture improve, and proper accommodation for 53-foot trailers in the facility itself

“When this market was built, they didn’t have 53-foot trailers backing in,” Barabino says. “The infrastructure around the market needs improvement. With the volume of trucks, the roads are increasingly maxed out. It can take 40 minutes to go three miles, and some people won’t send product to the market. Where the market thrives is as a network for growers to get product on store shelves in a beautiful manner. Improving the area around the market is a top consideration.”

Barabino expects the new Sheraton Expressway connector to be a significant boost to local road efficiency and help ease area traffic build-up.

With luck, it also is a sign that government is prepared to invest in the future of a vital resource.

“I’m looking at this as optimistically as possible,” D’Arrigo says. “It’s cautious optimism. You learn from history. But the timing is right. It looks like the stars are aligning.” pb

PHOTO

Enhancing food safety practices at Hunts Point has been an ongoing trend, with companies such as A&J (whose warehouse above is in the process of SQF certification), Armata and Katzman (inset photo shows Katzman's SQF-certified warehouse), among others, having acquired, or working toward, SQF certification.

Wholesalers Tackling Food Safety Through SQF Certification

BY MIKE DUFF

The merchants at Hunts Point Market take their role in ensuring food safety seriously, and several have invested in SQF (Safe Quality Food) certification through the Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

FMI conducts the SQF program, a rigorous food safety and quality assurance program that is recognized by retailers, brand owners and foodservice providers worldwide, including the Global Food Safety Initiative. The SQF family of food safety and quality codes meets industry, customer and regulatory requirements for all sectors of the food supply chain.

E. Armata is among those members of the Hunts Point cooperative that has imple mented an SQF program.

In 2019, Ariel Muza joined the company as its food safety director, according to Michael Armata, buyer and salesman, and E. Armata obtained its SQF certification with the quality module in October 2019.

“Our goal has always been to have the cleanest facility with the highest quality products and provide the best service possible,” Armata says, adding the food safety program has opened many avenues, such as gaining shippers and customers.

“Most of our customers require or feel more comfortable knowing our facility is SQF certified. Our shippers can trust their product is in good hands in a clean and safe facility, unlike many people’s image of the market from so many years ago.”

Times have changed, Armata empha sizes, and everyone in the supply chain insists on food safety practices. “In 2012, we completely renovated our warehouse space to become more efficient and coldchain compliant. Two years later, in 2014, we obtained our HACCP certification with a 100% superior rating under our head of operations, Nicholas Lomax.”

S. Katzman Produce, Bronx, NY, deter mined to pursue SQF certification as part of an evolving food safety program.

“We had other certifications prior to SQF, including GHP/GAP and Food

Defense Certifications, then became SQF certified in 2017,” says Stefanie Katzman, the company’s executive vice president. “Food safety is incredibly important to Katzman. Our grower/shippers trust us to protect the food supply chain, including the quality and integrity of their products, and our customers rely on us to deliver that same fresh, high-quality produce to them and their shoppers. Our diligent food safety practices are integral to this process.”

Another Hunts Point wholesaler, A & J Produce Corporation, is working toward a September audit and “the ultimate” in food safety with SQF certification, says Steph anie Tramutola, social media director and accounts payable manager. Today, to work with larger supermarket chains, she adds, SQF is pretty much a requirement.

“At A&J, our commitment to food safety is one of our top priorities and we are proud that we will be SQF certified to elevate our existing work to ensure that every piece of produce is perfect for our customers and end consumers,” she says. “We’re making sure we’re crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s.”

John Thomas Bonomolo, office manager, says that SQF requires cooperation across the company because it is, in many ways, a reconsideration of how to incorporate food safety into every process.

“It’s a level of cleanliness, to keep our warehouses in pristine condition throughout the day, constant sanitation is a must even with the amount of work going on,” he says. “You’re constantly ensuring proper clean up. You’re maintaining the cold chain from the truck through to the warehouse. On every level, you have to make sure to uphold these practices.”

Stephanie Tramutola adds, “It’s a learning process, but it’s implemented into the daily routine, making sure we are consis tently working as a team.”

GETTING STARTED

To implement an SQF program, FMI suggests interested food businesses first get basic information through several means, such as attending an SQF Information

Day, an in-person informational seminar designed to introduce companies to the benefits of food safety and quality certifi cation, or taking an on-site Implementing SQF Systems training course through a licensed SQF Training Center.

Those interested also can take the online Implementing SQF Systems training provided by Alchemy, an education firm, at www.alchemysystems.com, or train them selves by using the SQF documents avail able for free at www.sqfi.com, or take an Implementing SQF Systems online exam ination.

The second step is registering the business with the institute’s assessment database, which comes with a fee based on a company’s gross sales. At that point, common procedure calls for designation of an employee as an SQF Practitioner.

Businesses can choose their level or area of certification, one for low risk prod ucts, one based on a certified HACCP food safety plan that is benchmarked by GFSI, and one based on a comprehen sive implementation of safety and quality management systems that incorporates the HACCP level.

Businesses can obtain proposals from SQF licensed certification bodies to get quotes for and details about an SQF certi fication audit. They then conduct a pre-as sessment. Although doing so is optional, an assessment can identify gaps in a program between what is being done and what is required for SQF certification. The SQF licensed Certification Body identifies who can conduct an audit in the country where the operation seeking certification does business. The Certification Body then conducts Initial Certification Audits.

Phillip Grant, Hunts Point Market chief executive, says, although the market administration doesn’t get directly involved in SQF initiatives, it works to accommodate merchant requirements when they schedule audits. Enhancing food safety practices at the market “has been an ongoing trend, especially with SQF over the last several years.”

HUNTS POINT ACTION SHOTS

BE AWARE AND BE PREPARED

Undetected and unexpected, Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is claiming our youth. Cardiovascular disease is the second leading medical cause of death in children and adolescents in the United States. Data estimates that 1 in 50 high schools have a SCA in a student on school grounds each year. Affected youth usually appear healthy and normal…until they have an arrest. The good news is that early detection is possible, heart conditions are treatable and young lives can be saved. Knowledge of the observations and actions that can make the difference between life and death are key to a successful outcome.

Early detection is crucial. The Louis J. Acompora Memorial Foundation promotes the early detection of heart condi tions in youth through heart screenings. Frequently, the warning signs and symptoms of a heart condition in youth go undetected. Look for screenings in your area www.screenacrossamerica.org

Most occurrences of SCA in youth occur in public places. The increased availability of publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools and school-sponsored athletic events will dramatically increase the probability that youth and adults alike will survive a sudden cardiac arrest. Knowing and properly executing the critically time-urgent links of the Cardiac Chain-of-Survival can help save the life of someone in SCA.

Along with increased accessible AEDs, implementing Emergency Action planning protocols, preparedness will be greatly improved. www.anyonecansavealife.org

In June of 2002, Governor George Pataki of New York signed Louis’ Law, which requires AEDs in all New York public schools. To date 103 lives have been saved as a direct result of this law in New York public schools. Each time a vibrant, seemingly healthy child suffers a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), the Louis J. Acompora Memorial Foundation mission of protecting youth from SCA and preventable Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) becomes even more critical. We know it hap pens and we need to collectively assure others realize it by sharing our Mission and Vision.

1. Early Recognition

• Collapsed and unresponsive

• Seizure like activity

• Gasping, gurgling, snoring or labored breathing noises

Early

4. Early Defibrillation

• Immediately retrieve and use an automated external defibrillator(AED)

• as soon as possible to restore the heart to its normal rhythm

5. Early Advanced care

• Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Responders begin advanced like support

• Including additional resuscitative measures and trans fer to a hospital.

Early CPR

HUNTS POINT ACTION SHOTS

HUNTS POINT ACTION SHOTS

A Revamped Hunts Point Produce Market

Will Benefit NYC Consumers and Businesses

The Hunts Point Produce Market merchants are appealing for public funds, beyond the $100 million already secured, to build a dream market — a new, modern facility that would allow small retailers and independent restaurants to have a supply chain that will make them more competitive against their bigger competitors.

The dream facility also would allow growers to be able to market produce of all sizes and grades, as opposed to wasting loads of produce when giant retailers insist on only a specific size or grade.

Phillip Grant, chief executive of the Hunts Point Produce Market, breaks down the ways in which this new dream market might differ from the existing facility.

Q. What are some of the models envisioned? What would this type of facility look like? How would it differ from what exists today?

Grant: We are happy to announce that the Hunts Point Produce Market has actually received a commitment of approximately $130 million from the office of New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, within his first 100 days in office. The envisioned new Hunts Point Produce Market will be an ecosystem of businesses; a cold-chain-compliant and sustainable facility that will allow our merchants to better leverage their multi-generational expertise and continue to keep New York City fed.

NEW FORMAT

The most recently built terminal market in America is the Philadelphia market. Its unique innovation in American markets is that it is completely enclosed. The advantages, in terms of product quality, are clear, as this allows for temperature control. Yet its shape does not allow for the easy crossing of produce from receipt of product to distribution to client trucks.

Q: Is the thought that a new market would be enclosed?

Grant: The new Market will be an enclosed facility that will meet all requirements for cold chain compliance.

RAIL

Most of the newer terminal markets received public land where they could operate, often far from rail lines. Yet trains are environmentally friendly, economically advantageous, etc. Although Hunts Point was built with the expectation that trains could pull up right behind each warehouse, doing so necessitates the removal of tractor trailers that are backed up behind warehouses.

Q: Will a new market integrate the use of rail?

Grant: Rail is an essential component to our business ecosystem here at the Market, which many of our merchants depend on.

We are optimistic about the future of rail within the Market since rail cars are a sustainable form of transportation that remove approximately 4 trucks from our congested roadways.

WATER-BORNE TRANSPORTATION

In 2018, there was a study by the State University of New, City University of New York and the Merchant Marine Academy of the possibility of waterborne transportation to offer an alternative to the primary use of trucks.

Previous proposals considered the possibility of waterborne trans portation being integrated into the market. This might be more economical and environmentally friendly.

Phillip Grant, CEO, addressing the attendees at the New York Produce Show Breakfast.

Q: Is there a thought of integrating water-borne transportation in the new market?

Grant: This is an idea that has been discussed for years and we are open to the concept, especially as we see the City of New York starting pilot projects with this mode of transportation.

ROOFTOP GARDEN/GREENHOUSE

The Javits Center has built a rooftop garden that is aligned with the New York State Department of Agriculture.

Q: Is there a possibility that the roof of the facility could be greenhouses?

Grant: While we don’t have any specific plans to build greenhouses on top or within our facility, it is an exciting idea that has been proposed in the past. We are excited by this prospect and are open to coordinating with our local city and community partners to make it happen.

Mayor Eric Adams has made Urban Farming a part of his administration’s agenda.

FUEL

Q: Are there any plans for ensuring that trucks and trailers can all be plugged into electric outlets to avoid carbon emissions?

Grant: Yes. Provisions will be made to make trailer plug-ins possible.

TRAINING FACILITIES

Q: Are there any thoughts of building a training facility so that people from the South Bronx can be trained and given jobs?

Grant: The Market is currently working with The Hope Program, a local job and skills development not-for-profit, to install a NYC CoolRoof — a white paint that reduces indoor temperatures and helps reduce our energy consumption.

The Market hopes to develop more of these community-focused programs that help support job growth in The Bronx.

SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY

Q: The refrigeration needs of the produce industry are substantial. Surely the new facility will have proper insulation etc., but what about integrating solar, wind, and maybe even geothermal energy, so the market is self-sufficient in energy?

Grant: Our future market build will likely feature a solar array to help us achieve our vision of a more sustainable market. We are open to thinking creatively about ways to become more selfsufficient.

MARKET SUPPORT SERVICES

Q: Merchants depend on many services, such as banks, UPS/FedEx/ Postal service, accounting firms, etc. Any possibility of providing space for some of these support services to operate in a new market.

Grant: Our new market is envisioned to be an ecosystem of businesses that will make the work of keeping New Yorkers fed as easy and sustainable as possible. We are open to inviting new businesses into our market that will support this vision.

SUSTAINABILITY

Q: With the demand for recycling packaging, reusing pallets, etc., how could a new market boost sustainability interest?

Grant: We envision that our new market will come equipped with a state-of-the-art waste disposal system that will allow us to increase our wholemarket recycling efforts.

CHARITY

The market is famous for being very generous with produce helping many people and organizations. Yet the ideal facilities may extend shelf life and make it easy to sell produce.

Q: How can we make sure that charitable needs are served as the market evolves?

Grant: Giving back is an important aspect of our market’s culture.

Our merchants are passionate about giving back to the communities that have supported them throughout our long history in New York City, especially our local communities. In fact, approximately, 60% of the employees at the market are from The Bronx. All that is to say that our giveback programs will continue and even evolve!

BOTTOM LINE

Q: An ultra-modern, world-class market: What would it mean for shippers, for buyers and for market operators?

Grant: The current Market was built in 1967 and has been supporting New York City's food infrastructure ever since.

Building a state-of-the-art facility will mean that buyers and shippers can continue to depend on our multi-generational expertise for generations to come.

Phillip Grant, CEO, and Jennifer Mitchell, The Hope Program Executive Director, paint the Hunts Point Produce Market.

New York Distributors Get The Job Done While Transforming Business

BY JODEAN ROBBINS

The crises of the past several years laid the groundwork for a greater role of the New York area wholesaler.

“Our relationships with customers have strengthened after all that has transpired over the past two years because we were still able to deliver the products and services they expect from us at a time when things were very difficult,” says Joey Granata, sales director at FreshPro Food Distributors in West Caldwell, NJ. “Customers look to us to provide them with the right products and good quality, but want and need value in those products.”

Bruce Klein, director of marketing for Maurice A. Auerbach in Secaucus, NJ, believes the local wholesaler plays an even more critical role in the current climate.

“We make sure we have the product,” he says. “We handle all the logistics. The customer calls us and they can get it delivered that day or the next day. Our job is harder, but we try to make it easier for the customer. That’s why the middleman is so important.”

The unique positioning and skillset of

regional wholesalers lets them build value for customers and keeps them successful. “We in the middle are a crucial part of what makes the industry run,” says Michael Muzyk, pres ident of Baldor Specialty Foods in Bronx, NY. “We have a tremendous potential for success because we sell health. We benefit so many people and offer solutions to so many problems. We can’t look back; we are looking forward. As Lyndon B. Johnson said, ‘Yesterday isn’t ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.’ And I tell my team we’re going to win.”

And New York off-market wholesalers see customers responding to what they offer. “A lot of our customers are asking for more merchandise,” says Anthony Serafino, execu tive vice president of EXP Group in North Bergen, NJ. “Some are realizing what we can do for them. It makes me feel confident about our business model. Customers are looking for sources they can rely on, and looking to get more from those businesses who can reliably and consistently supply. They’re asking, ‘Who is getting me what I need?’ This is even more critical with the labor crunch.”

“Everyone always wants more, but I believe customers understand the circumstances and the challenges we face on a daily basis,” says Floyd Avillo, president of FreshPro. “And it’s not just in produce. The challenges hold true in all departments and many other businesses as well.”

There is more appreciation now for service and just getting the job done, agrees Ben Friedman, president of Riviera Produce of Englewood, NJ. “With the lack of labor in the marketplace, every company has been severely affected,” he says. “Customers are looking for companies who can deliver.”

TOUGH OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

Today’s wholesalers are caught in the middle of a demanding market and chal lenging supply chain. “The buying patterns

Standing on recognized expertise, these off market companies are reimagining and investing in the future.

PHOTO COURTESY

FreshPro and other New York area wholesalers have adapted to the delivery and service challenges of the past two years.

PHOTO COURTESY

Regional wholesalers have built value for customers, such as fresh cut services.

seem to have trended back to pre-Covid, but everyone is struggling — from growers to wholesalers to retailers — because of high costs of fuel, labor shortages, supply chain issues and weather issues in growing areas,” says Avillo. “And it’s creating major infla tion. Consumers at the retail level are not spending freely since they have to cut back because of less disposable income. There are a lot of obstacles at the current moment and it’s making for tough sledding as far as profits.”

The marketplace is crazy with inflation, agrees Serafino. “When the pandemic first hit, the operating climate was riddled with uncertainty,” he says. “But I think this current climate is more difficult than it was in 2020 because we’re now dealing with some of the economic ramifications. Produce tends to have some protection from inflation, but at some point, consumers have their pocketbooks affected and that affects produce purchases.”

The pandemic, combined with current supply chain constraints, result in a compli cated interpretation of business. “Current success is a complicated answer in that Baldor’s numbers are strong, both in case count and top dollar sales,” says Muzyk. “But, some of this is due to inflation, so we have to look at package count. It’s also not the same customer base as before. We have a broader customer base because we picked up some business where other competitors might have slipped.”

Pre-pandemic, Vision Import Group in Wyckoff, NJ, was heavily concentrated on the foodservice sector of the industry. “That percentage of our business is now 100 percent back and thriving,” says Raul Millan, pres ident. “The pandemic made us realize we needed to capture more retail business, and that’s exactly what we did. Looking back, it’s one thing the pandemic taught us that will be

fruitful for the future: Diversification is crucial in our business. We have always maintained strong relationships with key wholesalers here locally and throughout the country. It was a huge advantage to have those outlets as well.”

Wholesalers report lingering effects in the foodservice industry. “The menus are changing in New York,” says Muzyk. “Restaurants might be using a little less produce because it’s so perishable and labor intensive. Chefs are deciding if they’re going to spend money, to spend it on the center of the plate. It’s a balancing act, as far as foodservice and menu development.”

With the rising food costs, Friedman reports seeing restaurants narrowing menus and using fewer specialty items. “They’re working with less people and have people working less hours,” he says. “They’re looking to simplify the menus and have the kitchens execute what they can.”

Soaring prices at retail in response to

supply chain issues also threaten to compli cate business. “We believe retail prices will continue to go up,” says FreshPro’s Avillo. “I don’t see any relief from gas prices, cost of labor or finding truckers. Additionally, the industry has to deal with cost increases — fuel, packaging, fertilizers — that growers are facing, as well as water issues in California.”

CREATIVE, FLEXIBLE RESPONSE

Despite all the challenges, New York wholesalers respond in various ways to get their jobs done.

“We’re working overtime to ensure our clientele can get the products they need,” says EXP’s Serafino. “We’re doing everything we can and going the extra mile to get what we need for our customer. This is a tougher envi ronment because the supply chain challenges are just crazy. It’s a very difficult environment to operate in. There are even challenges in getting equipment. I have trucks and other equipment on order, but they can’t be delivered for months or even a year. So, we’re working with what we have in creative ways.”

The staff at Auerbach mitigates the issues in the supply chain for customers, explains Klein. “We do our best to bridge the gap for our customers,” he says. “For example, we see how it takes longer and longer to get ships into port, so we place orders earlier to be able to have an overlap of product.”

Customers benefit from the flexibility of the local and regional wholesale business. “They don’t have to plan out two to three weeks in advance,” says Klein. “They can adjust their orders on the fly. If they need something tomorrow, we generally have it and they can get it the next day. If it was supposed to storm and it doesn’t, so the stores are unexpectedly busy, they can call us. We try to make sure they

PHOTO COURTESY EXP GROUP

PHOTO COURTESY EXP GROUP

The labor crunch is impacting New York area wholesalers, but they are still finding ways to adapt.

Customers are asking for more merchandise, and sources they can rely upon.

don’t have any out-of-stocks on items they handle. The current rollercoaster situation of the marketplace has increased the value of this benefit.”

Vision Import Group has seen increased response from customers to its value-added programs, specifically bagging, says Millan. “Consumers felt added comfort with bagged product and I believe this trend will continue. As well, our team worked very hard with our grower partners to maintain quality and service in the hardest of times over the past couple of years. Our customers gained confi dence in our ability to do this, even with all the obstacles we all had to overcome.”

Millan says Vision’s customers remain very understanding and pivot with them as challenges present themselves. “The key is to maintain constant, continuous communication and we all can overcome any challenges,” he says. “We encourage people to give us a call and talk about their challenges so we can explore how, together, we can solve them.”

Baldor has moved to reinterpret the appli cation of some concepts such as sustainability, explains Muzyk. “Sustainability is a big word,” he says. “We’re learning today that just like the definition of frontline workers evolved, how we think of sustainability has evolved and it now applies to labor. How do you sustain your labor and how do you make the most of the workers you have?”

A UNIQUE FOUNDATION

New York’s off-market wholesalers have long served the region with a host of prod ucts, yet each one has also developed a partic ular niche or specialty. Auerbach is known

for garlic and ginger, EXP for tropicals and exotics, Vision for limes and mangos, FreshPro for fresh cut, Riviera for exceptional execution of service and Baldor for distinctive restaurant offerings. Although all these companies offer a full line of products, their names remain synonymous with these associations.

Every company is known for something, explains EXP Group’s Serafino. “We sell A to Z, but we are really known for tropicals,” he says. “It’s our niche; it’s where we started. Though we do everything, tropical is our forte. There are three items we feel we do better than anybody: bananas, plantains and papaya. Nobody sells more plantains than us. We sell close to 60,000 boxes of plantains a week.”

Vision specializes in providing a consis

tent source of top-quality produce and indus try-recognized brands, such as Mr. Squeeze limes and lemons and Picasso mangos, says Angela Aronica, vice president of sales.

“Above all, we take pride in our exceptional customer service,” Aronica says. “This includes providing thorough and accurate communi cation regarding market updates, seasonality trends and crop forecasts on a routine basis. We value the relationships built with both our grower network and customer base.”

Most of Auerbach’s customers know the company for garlic and a lot of the root vege tables, such as ginger, shallots and horseradish. “Those are a specialty for us,” says Klein. “We are also heavily into asparagus, limes and baby potatoes. Garlic comes in many forms, and fresh peeled garlic is a huge item for us for foodservice.”

FreshPro’s large facility allows it to serve customers in a variety of ways, explains Avillo. “We have aisles in our building dedi cated to many different products catering to customer specifics,” he says. “We try to cater to the uniqueness of each customer. They all have different programs and we try to be as supportive as we can because we understand their need to differentiate their business.”

EXP Group also finds its niche in being a grower, packer, shipper and wholesaler, as well as its own logistics company. “Our customers rely on us because we control our own destiny,” says Serafino. “We pick up our own merchan dise from the port, we ripen it and we ship it out. If EXP can’t get it done, then our customers know it’s truly delayed.”

In the farm-to-fork equation, Muzyk says Baldor is not the farm or the fork, but the “to.” "I take a package the last mile in the most expensive city in the country, and I’ve figured

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FreshPro's large facility allows it to serve customers in a variety of ways, from different departments to unique customer programs.

PHOTO COURTESY EXP GROUP

New York area wholesalers find their niche in specialty products, as well as being a grower, packer, shipper, wholesaler and logistics company.

NEW

out how to do it,” he says. “In New York, it’s a hard last-mile delivery and we are in this space of daily delivery. Our customers can order until 10:30 at night and we bring it the next day. Plus, we offer specialty produce from all over the world, combined with the boutique proteins and other boutique items.”

Riviera Produce holds a niche of agility — something the current climate brought to the forefront. “We’re about a year into recovery,” says Friedman. “Things are better, but not where they were before.”

“And, we see some of the biggest compa nies still having huge problems making timely deliveries. That has created opportunities for those who are agile and can make the deliv eries. Our specialty is our ability to never say ‘no’ to the customer — that on a Saturday at 4 p.m., a customer can find me. They won’t get a voicemail; they’ll get me. And, we will get the customer what they need.”

EXPANDING THE OFFERING

Building on their strong foundation, New York wholesalers continue to push the envelope by developing larger offerings for customers, yet delivering the some quality and service as expected.

“Our produce SKU counts are close to 1,000 SKUs on a daily basis,” says FreshPro’s Granata. “If a customer does business with a broadline distributor, they only get what that distributor has to pick from. We offer so much more and we will even go out and look for items our customers request. So customers get want they want, not just what we have. We service the customer with on-time, quality, and to their specs.”

Riviera offers a diverse and expanding line for customers. “Our customers’ eyes and ears are always open to new products,” says Friedman. “Big corporate and foodservice

dining have been moving to fresh cut for years and continue to do that. The white tablecloth restaurants still want fresh. We help ensure our customers have consistency on their shelf.”

Wholesalers are also experiencing growth in organics. “Organic produce is one of the fastest growing segments of our business,” says Granata. “We are committed to offering the highest quality, certified-organic prod ucts from local and national suppliers. Our processing division is certified to process and repack organics.”

Baldor operates a full fresh-cut opera tion, which Muzyk reports has grown due to current labor conditions. “We have seen an increase in demand for our fresh-cut prod ucts,” he says. “Our fresh-cut operation has better yields than trying to do it at restaurant level. Operators are now taking advantage of this.”

According to Avillo, FreshPro operates unique capabilities for fresh-cut, such as bulk packs for kitchens and salad bars, retail packs for supermarkets or convenience stores, private label and its own FreshPro brand. “We operate a state-of-the-art facility to provide the highest quality product with food safety assur ance,” he says. “We also assist our customers in developing value-added items to their specifi cations to differentiate product offerings.”

RETHINKING BUSINESS

The past few years have pushed New York wholesalers not just to adapt, but to actually rethink how they are taking their business into the future. “You don’t stand still in business,” says Muzyk. “You’re moving forward or you’re moving backward.”

The pandemic years forced businesses to reinvent themselves and wholesalers stepped up to respond to customer changes. “Before New York closed indoor dining, many of my customers weren’t interested in take-out, home delivery or outdoor dining,” says Muzyk. “To survive until tomorrow, they had to reinvent themselves. As they saw the challenges in the supply chain, they recognized Baldor as their reliable choice. We worked and reinvented alongside them. We now carry a lot more non-produce-related items and our customers have come to rely on and trust us outside their typical purveyors. They rely on us in a different way than they did before, more symbiotic.”

Vision is working to have more of its available product line closer to customers, says Millan. “We’re focusing on a regional, regular, available inventory with the ability to help service more customers just-in-time, instead of the more traditional ports-of-entry distri bution model,” he says. “As an importer and marketer of our branded commodities, we are

more focused than ever on listening to try to help solve all of our partners’ challenges and overcome the supply chain obstacles.”

In response to customer demand and supply chain issues, Riviera started a divi sion to import products from other countries, and formed relationships with lime exporters from Colombia, says Friedman. “In the last two months, we imported 12 full containers of limes and we started recently with avocados from Colombia.”

Rethinking business for some whole salers means expanding product lines beyond produce. “We have had to figure out how to do business like we’ve never done before,” says Friedman. “Through COVID-19, we learned we couldn’t only do produce and survive. Out of necessity, we brought in a full line of dairy, cooking oils and salt and sugar. We found we had the relationships and were able to add these items to fulfill our customers’ needs better. We continue to expand our line and are open to other products.”

Muzyk explains how current constraints are changing what customers need. “Spring and early summer is usually extremely bright,” he says. “Ramps, spring garlic and fiddlehead ferns are all an exciting harvest of what our chefs are used to at this time of year. But, now our chefs are telling us they’d like to talk about fiddlehead ferns, but what they really need in the current climate is a good bread source. They’ve always trusted us on the specialty produce side, but now they are trusting us to look for those other boutique food items.”

INCREASING TECHNOLOGY AND INVESTMENT

The pandemic sped up the technological adaptation among the New York whole sale community. “The pandemic started it and the current supply chain issues continue

PHOTO COURTESY

GROUP

Vision Import Group has seen increased response to its value-added programs.

Vision Import specializes in consistent top-quality produce and recognized brands, such as Mr. Squeeze limes and lemons.

PHOTO COURTESY

IMPORT GROUP

promoting it,” says Serafino. “Customers are asking who they can rely on if they want uninterrupted supply. Companies who are on track with that, such as we are, find the need to invest more to keep themselves on track and respond to this customer demand.”

EXP Group is investing capital in quality control applications, working with Famous Software, says Serafino.

“And, we’re making our processes much more digital,” he adds. “For example, we have an app where our customers can order produce. They can also log onto our website and place orders that way. EXP Group has long worked to be a leader in this space. It’s important in B2B. For example, if there is a supermarket chain with 25 stores, each produce manager can log in and order what they need.”

As most of Vision’s staff became remote in response to the pandemic, the company evolved by incorporating different means of communication to maintain the required level of internal collaboration. “This includes the

use of Teams and Zoom video conferencing, as well as WhatsApp,” says Aronica. “Addi tionally, we have revamped our social media presence in order to expand our network, as well as our influence within the industry.”

FreshPro has invested heavily to ensure the integrity of its state-of-the-art warehouse. “We maintain the cold chain throughout the entire process, from receiving through processing and until delivery,” says Avillo. “We have the highest certifications for food safety and product integrity with a third-party certi fied, modern HACCP facility that is moni tored daily by quality assurance.”

EXP Group is also making capital expen ditures to invest in the physical space of the company. “We built six more ripening rooms for a total now of 35,” says Serafino. “We’re planning to build more to get to 42 ripening rooms within the next 12 months. We added 25,000 square feet in cold storage and are looking to expand 30,000 more to take us to almost 100,000 in our facility here. We’re making a lot of capital expenditures in cold

n INVESTING IN A NEW GENERATION

New York wholesalers are not only rethinking business with expanded lines and investment in technology, but are also investing in the next genera tion of produce professionals.

“We are moving forward and preparing people,” says Bruce Klein, director of marketing for Maurice A. Auerbach in Secaucus, NJ. “We have focused on getting some younger blood in. Josh Auerbach has been lending us the next generation perspective for years now.”

Auerbach also hired family member John Venables last year to work in sales and some other company areas. “He’s onboard to help take us into the future,” says Klein. Venables earned an MBA from DePaul University in 2019, and spent the last two years in a finance role at Northwestern University. Prior to his MBA, he worked at a Chicago private equity firm and led them through a digital transformation.

“It’s good to get the new generations involved and prepare for the future,” stresses Klein.

In North Bergen, NJ, EXP Group’s Executive Vice President Anthony Serafino is another example of NextGen leadership, and has been working for eight years with the company. “We have to constantly stay evolving,” he says. “The produce industry has a lot of multi-generational families and a lot of youth coming into the industry.”

Serafino has learned from watching his father operate his companies, and then incorporates his own take. “I don’t try to rock the boat,” he says. “ A lot of successors like to ‘tear down the wall and rebuild it themselves,’ but maybe the wall just needs a few repairs. It’s a lot of responsibility — we have

storage and logistical expenditures.”

Baldor continues to invest in upgrading operations. “We have been through many different system upgrades over the years, from DOS-based to Windows,” says Muzyk. “During that time, we realized our biggest advantage was to decrease paper. It’s already an orchestrated ballet of chaos — if I still picked orders by paper, it would be a train wreck. Technology was already in play to give the selectors a handheld device, and tablets have always been our goal to capture electronic signatures. We’re looking at how we can use technology to continue to revolutionize our business.”

Equipment investment is another area where Baldor is moving forward in response to the current climate. The company just invested in 10 wrapping machines. “We are about ready to put them online and it will allow us to repurpose 50 people to other positions,” says Muzyk. “That’s taking advantage of one piece of technology to better the working conditions of our employees.” pb

a few hundred employees onsite — and we pride ourselves on being a leader.”

Current leaders rely on the next generation to help move companies into the digital arena. “When I was a chef, I stretched the phone cord out the back door and used a yellow pad to write my orders,” says Michael Muzyk, president of Baldor Specialty Foods in Bronx, NY. “The younger gener ation of chefs came along and requested a website for ordering. So, my nephew came onboard after graduating college for web design. Our website has evolved over the years, pushed by each new generation to turn it into a rocket ship. That younger generation is also pushing us for what we’re doing on social media. How are we telling our story?

“The next generation is impelling us to do bigger and better things. They are absolutely bringing change.”

At Vision Import Group in Wyckoff, NJ, not only is the company promoting the younger generation of industry professionals, but it also has a strong female presence. Angela Aronica, vice president of sales, has been with the company for five years.

“We represent and encourage diversity within the workplace,” she says. “As the industry continues to evolve, we hope to continue to develop and strengthen our team with the skills needed to navigate the volatile world of produce. As our vision states: Todos tenemos que comer — ‘we all have to eat.’ Vision Import Group is preparing a new generation to carry on that legacy.”

Wholesalers are investing in the next generation of employees. From top: Maurice A. Auerbach's John Venables, EXP Group's Anthony Serafino, and Vision Import's Angela Aronica.

Labor Still a Critical Transportation Issue

BY MIKE DUFF AND SUSAN CROWELL

Trucking remains a tough go for the produce industry, with many of the problems created in the COVID-19 pandemic remaining and new ones looming.

Labor woes continue to complicate the logistics of moving produce, says Evan Kazan, vice president at Target Interstate Systems, a third party, full-service transpor tation and logistics company headquartered at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx.

Even before the pandemic, the average age of the trucking workforce was high, Kazan says, with many drivers close to retirement age. Then, during the pandemic,

some drivers decided to hang it up while supplementary income could take them to or close to where they wanted to be finan cially when they were ready to retire. And, to make matters worse, Kazan says, a signif icant proportion of drivers refused to get vaccinated.

The other end of that issue was truckers avoiding places where they worried they might more readily contract COVID-19.

“We had exceptional issues at the very beginning getting trucks to come up to New York,” he says. “We would tell some guys, ‘I have something in the Bronx.’ They said, ‘I’m not going there.’ It was a hotbed.”

At that point, pay increased, sign-up

bonuses appeared, in part because transpor tation companies were parking trucks for lack of available drivers, Kazan says. Pairing up team drivers was a problem as many truckers didn’t want to be in close quarters with a second person, which lowered transporta tion efficiency. At the same time, competing sectors could offer easier routes, essentially directly east from West Coast docks, that didn’t include trekking to Salinas, CA, or Yuma, AZ. Truckers could expect the load value of something in consumer electronics to be higher, so the shipper was in a position to pay more, and often lighter, which made for lower fuel costs.

There’s definitely been a bit of a labor paradigm shift in the aftermath of COVID19, specifically changing expectations of the workforce, says Robert Goldstein, president and chief executive of Genpro, a transporta tion provider/broker headquartered in Ruth erford, NJ, with a long history of arranging transportation for produce wholesalers, retailers and shippers.

“The alignment of people in a changing marketplace has definitely been a challenge,” says Goldstein, adding, “People are also looking at the balance of work-life, especially

Labor woes continue to complicate the logistics of moving produce.

In addition to labor, challenges facing the produce transportation industry include a slow international supply chain, and a shortage of diesel in the Northeast.

According to Robert Goldstein, president and chief executive of Genpro, the company's goal is to provide more value and increase communication and transparency with its customers.

in a very demanding, 24-hour, seven-day-aweek business of servicing produce.”

“Obviously, wages have gone up, inflation is a factor, but benchmarking the flexibility of being able to work off-site and having more flexible time has definitely been a challenge.”

As a mature, nationwide company, in business for 33 years, Genpro has been promoting things that are career paths, instead of a short-term strategy, in its labor recruitment. “We’ve made a commitment, especially out of COVID, on how we engage with employees — how we’re mentoring, coaching, training and onboarding,” Gold stein says. “There’s real opportunity to profes sionalize the job and role that they’re playing, and how they’re servicing the produce busi ness.”

Kazan is confident the transportation industry labor situation will get back to some normalcy. “More people will be joining the workforce, most drivers will want to drive. Particularly with the high rates that you have, it’s an attractive business.”

NEW NORMAL

But labor hasn’t been the only challenge facing the produce transportation industry — a snarled international supply chain slowed shipment of truck parts, so, even a simple problem might take weeks to fix due to the lack of a part.

And now, Kazan says, fuel is a bigger issue and has its own complexities, as truckers try to balance fluctuating prices with what they need to complete a delivery, which brought surcharges into the equation.

He’s concerned about a possible diesel shortage in the Northeast. “I don’t know how that’s going to affect things. There aren’t a lot of refineries that process up here anymore.”

“They’re talking about just an overall [lack] of diesel in the Northeast this summer, and you might not have trucks come up here because they can’t refuel and get out. I wish I knew what the year ahead provides.”

Goldstein says Genpro’s goal — before, during and after the pandemic, and with rising transportation costs and capacity issues — has been to provide more value and increase communication and transparency with its customers.

“We have tried to be more strategic and aligned to what our customers’ objectives are, trying to be more transparent with informa tion and data that might be useful to make decisions,” he says. “We're trying to be more transparent and be more solution-oriented than just transactional.”

That means giving customers informa tion they need quickly so they can factor it into their own supply chain and workflow

involving inbound transportation, specifically.

Genpro knows the produce industry, emphasizes Goldstein, who says he grew up on Hunts Point. “Our value to them is we do understand their business. We know how they operate, we know the transactional side of the business, and what they keep up with markets and changing markets,” he adds, “really trying to be a part of prioritizing what their needs are, almost as an extension of what they do when it comes to logistics.”

Goldstein says freight rates have softened somewhat from a year ago, but everyone is

trying to guess what that means. “There’s some relief right now, but I think labor will still continue to be an issue.”

Kazan expects the supply chain is on its way to a new diversity as the pandemic has demonstrated that operations that might be very efficient in normal times can fall apart when things aren’t so normal — a Plan B has to remain available.

“We’re going to have more backup plans,” he says. “You’re not going to have one ware house. You’re not going to have just one transportation plan.” pb

Wakefern's Jami Espinosa Shares Insights on Produce Procurement

Jami Espinosa, category manager, produce, for Wakefern Food Corp., Keasbey, NJ, with three of her colleagues, received the 2022 Tribute to Women and Industry, or TWIN, Awards from the Union County (NJ) YWCA this spring. The awards recognize the achievements and significant contribu tions made by women within their industries in managerial, executive, supervisory and/or professional roles, as well as businesses with policies and practices that encourage high achievement by women and promote equal advancement opportunities for women of diverse backgrounds.

Wakefern and ShopRite recipients of the honor included Espinosa; Maxine Nigro, pharmacy systems and support supervisor; ShopRite’s Jessica Valentino, controller for Ravitz Family Markets; and Amanda Fischer,

marketing, business development and outreach manager for Village Super Market. Wakefern, the logistics, merchandising and distribution arm for ShopRite stores and other grocery operations such as Gourmet Garage in Manhattan, is a major force in the New York region and beyond, and was a critical food supplier to communities from Hartford, CT, to Baltimore, MD, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Wakefern, which bills itself as the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, Espinosa sources produce and other specialty vegetable items. Her major responsibility is to regularly work with growers, shippers and vendor partners to procure top quality produce at the best price. She recently shared some thoughts with Produce Business contributor Mike Duff.

Espinosa: I started in Wakefern’s Florida field office in 2011, and prior to that I worked in sales and as a commodity manager for a produce company in South Florida.

In 2016, I became a category manager in Wakefern’s Florida field office in Pompano Beach. One of my biggest tasks is to regularly work with growers, shippers and vendor part ners, with the goal of procuring top quality produce at the best price. I am continuously on-site in packinghouses and farm fields, as much as possible. In the summer, I travel up and down the East Coast, as the crops tran sition from Florida through every state along the Eastern Seaboard and into New Jersey, physically buying the best available crops for Wakefern member stores. Many days are spent in the fields, designating which crops meet the highest standards and will ultimately make their way to customer’s baskets.

I arrived at this present position via a winding path. I started taking agriculture courses in high school and I’ve always had a love for the outdoors. Growing up, I would spend as much time as possible at the barn with my horse. I was offered a scholarship to study at an agriculture college in Georgia, and with a barn on campus, it was a perfect fit for me. I still try to spend as much time in the

PRODUCE BUSINESS: How did you arrive at your present position and how long have you been in it?

Jami Espinosa, category manager, produce, for Wakefern Food Corp.

"In the post-COVID world, I look forward to seeing people in person again and getting back to the farms and working directly with growers," says Espinosa.

fields as possible, even though now it means I always have a laptop and cellphone within arm’s reach.

PB: What categories in the produce department do you manage?

Espinosa: Currently, I oversee corn, cabbage, carrots, celery, cantaloupe, honeydew, variety melons and baby vegetables.

PB: How has your job evolved? How has COVID-19 affected it and what do you look forward to in the post-COVID world?

Espinosa: COVID resulted in many changes. My job before the pandemic involved quite a bit of travel mostly within Florida, and in the summer months, up the Eastern Seaboard. Before, we would be out of the office and in the field multiple times per week. With COVID, however, that came to a halt, and our days were filled with video meetings instead. In the post-COVID world, I look forward to seeing people in person again and getting back to the farms and working directly with growers.

PB: How have the product segments you covered evolved and how do you see produce changing with the times? Is it more about health? New products? More shoppers doing more cooking and learning how to prepare new dishes?

Espinosa: I think it’s a combination of all of those things. Shoppers are multi-faceted, and the beauty of working with Wakefern is the opportunity to serve consumers under different banners in multiple markets, each with different and evolving needs. Initially with COVID, we saw a return to the kitchen and a boom in home cooking. As we return to more normalcy, I definitely think there’s a demand for convenience in fresh foods and produce. I am the mom of two, and I know what it’s like to rush to get dinner on the table after work/after school and before a game or practice. I often have a very small window to pull together something healthy that everyone will eat.

PB: How does Wakefern support your efforts in the produce department in terms of supply and other support?

Espinosa: As a retailer-owned coopera tive, Wakefern is an incredibly collaborative working environment. We work very hard to communicate any industry challenges — labor, crop issues, supply chain impacts, etc. — in an effort to be solution-driven, and minimize the

potential impacts at store level. And we always work as a team to get the best produce to our customers.

PB: Are you confronting labor shortages that affect your produce department operations?

Espinosa: Labor is an issue that is impacting the entire industry and all retailers. We are seeing it from the grower level, all the way to store level. It is a challenge the industry faces daily.

PB: What kind of shopper feedback do you get today? What are shoppers interested in?

Espinosa: Our customer care division does a wonderful job of keeping a finger on the pulse of our shoppers. We are given verbatim feedback from shoppers and can track trends in order to react swiftly to customer needs. Needing to stretch a dollar is vitally important

today to customers, and that’s why we work to provide produce that is fresh, affordable and provides the maximum shelf life.

PB: What does earning the YWCA award mean to you?

Espinosa: Being a YWCA Twin Honoree this year has been such an honor, and an incredibly humbling experience. An introvert by nature, I was certainly out of my element to be acknowledged in this way. However, seeing the look of pride on my daughter’s face, was incredible and rewarding, even though I’m still working through a case of imposter syndrome. So many incredible women in the produce and food industry, including Mari anne Santo, category manager and first woman president of the Eastern Produce Council, have accomplished remarkable things in their careers. I truly enjoy the work that I do, so to be acknowledged for just doing my job is so rewarding.

"As we return to more normalcy, I definitely think there’s a demand for convenience in fresh foods and produce," says Espinosa.

Gourmet Garage Elevates

The Everyday

BY MIKE DUFF

The name may not exactly say it, other than in an ironic sense, but Gourmet Garage is a food retailer that satisfies a customer base of savvy, food-con scious shoppers. The NYC retailer now has four neighborhood locations — in Manhattan in Soho and Tribeca, the Upper West Side and its newest store, the West Village.

Gourmet Garage really did start in a garage, with the first of its retail locations actually taking over from a former garage. But the company’s food expertise goes back to 1981, when it was founded as Flying Foods International, an importer and distributor of edibles to foodservice.

So it may not be surprising that Gourmet Garage, officially launched about a decade after the company first started operating, tells New York consumers to “shop like a chef” when they’re looking for quality food.

“Because of our background, we do have a strong focus on fresh, prepared foods and we offer a wide variety of affordable, chef-made

meals and grab-and-go options, such as sushi, gourmet sandwiches, soups and coffees at our coffee bar,” says Perry Blatt, a third-generation grocer with Gourmet Garage and its parent company, Village Super Market.

The store offers 10 varieties of handcrafted soups each day and over 40 varieties of sushi made by in-house sushi chefs. There’s also freshly prepared meats and to-go seafood in oven-ready tins, baked breads and desserts for a specialty market experience.

PRODUCE PULLING POWER

Produce is a critical part of the operation and one that is a draw among customers who look for fresh, abundant fruits and vegetables.

“Produce is one of the most important departments, and we know our customers expect the freshest fruits and vegetables and organics at a fair price,” says Rob Prusak, Gourmet Garage produce director. “Our goal is to always deliver on those expectations.”

He adds that almost 40% of the produce department assortment is organic.

The new, 15,000 square foot store in the West Village fills out the Gourmet Garage presence downtown where stores in the Soho and Tribeca neighborhoods were already serving customers.

The Hudson Street store also offers a new, bi-level model for Gourmet Garage, Blatt says. Freshly prepared fine foods and produce can be found on the first floor, the “Market Level,” while the “Chef’s Basement” lower floor features an assortment of pantry staples and groceries.

In a part of New York where rents are high and stores are mostly small, Gourmet Garage customers “want variety, fresh-cut fruit, organics, locally grown products and well-known brands. They also want affordable produce,” Prusak says.

Shoppers entering the new West Village Gourmet Garage get an eyeful of produce

With four NYC stores, this retailer’s flexibility allows it to keep the freshest possible produce on shelves.

Gourmet Garage is appealing to NYC consumers with its "shop like a chef" marketing message.

Produce is a critical part of the Gourmet Garage merchandising presentation as urban consumers look for fresh product.

from the get-go, and the store uses fruits and vegetables as an anchor to link other product categories in establishing a strong, fresh food presentation.

“Our produce department is located near the entrance of the store and people will see an entire rainbow of fruits and vegetables as they enter the store,” Prusak says. “We also have tie-ins to make shopping and recipe coordi nating more convenient for our customers.”

For example, right next to the produce, the store has a large specialty olive oil display that includes vinegars, cheeses and storemade croutons to complement tomatoes and greens. “We are always thinking about how the customer may use our products to create a simpler approach to shopping and meal prep.”

Prusak says color is a critical element in Gourmet Garage produce merchandising.

“We are proud of our produce selection and the bold, bright colors customers will see when they shop our produce,” he says. “Atten tion-grabbers, like our fresh tomatoes, basil and avocados, are on display when you first enter the store, along with a large, colorful assortment of our fresh-cut fruit.”

Although many shoppers are looking for produce in its basic form, Gourmet Garage has its reputation for prepared foods for the busy grab-and-go shopper. Manhattan’s long love affair with take-out and delivered meals is an opportunity and an important part of the Gourmet Garage market positioning.

“We cut a lot of our fruit and vegetables in our central kitchen, and we also cut at store level,” Prusak says. “That flexibility allows us to keep the freshest possible produce on shelves.”

Still, bulk produce is critical and shop ping for it can be frequent. Famously, small Manhattan refrigerators don’t hold a lot, and so many consumers shop small, particu

larly when it comes to products they can get fresh locally. For instance, says Prusak, a lot of Gourmet Garage customers come in multiple times per week to buy their greens.

A greater emphasis on seasonal fruits and vegetables among health-conscious and envi ronmentally concerned shoppers is something that Gourmet Garage takes into consideration as part of produce operations.

“Seasonal and local are a big part of our business,” Prusak says. “Customers expect us to deliver on the right items at the right time of the year, whether that is a large assortment of melons in May or local blueberries in July and August.”

Food-conscious Manhattan consumers also include a significant number of vegetarian and vegan eaters, and Gourmet Garage caters to them, too.

“We do have a section of plant-based options in the produce department that includes dairy replacement items and nuts, and we offer even more plant-based proteins in the meat department,” Prusak says.

NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNER

As it laid the groundwork for the new West Village store, Gourmet Garage lead ership took to the streets, Blatt says, and asked local residents what they’d like to see in a grocery store. “They told us that fresh foods and affordable price points were very important to them.”

“We believe the West Village needs a neighborhood market like Gourmet Garage that offers exceptional value with a large selection of affordable fine foods. We also want shoppers to feel like this is their market. If there is something they want that we don’t have, we ask them to tell us. We will get it.”

The latest location, operating somewhat

to the north of the other downtown stores, provides Gourmet Garage with an additional advantage.

“This new location in the West Village allows us to extend our delivery for Gourmet Garage to additional zip codes in Manhattan,” he says. “We offer delivery through our Gourmet Garage app in as little as two hours.”

Gourmet Garage wants the West Village store, and really all its stores, to be a resource for the community, so catering to customer preferences is happily accomplished.

“We love the area and are excited to expand our footprint in lower Manhattan with this latest location in the West Village,” Blatt says. pb

FACT FILE

GOURMET GARAGE, WEST VILLAGE

585 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

Phone: (212) 835-6910

Website: gourmetgarage.com

Sunday-Saturday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Gourmet Garage's fresh food presentation links to a range of displays for fruits, vegetables and specialty items throughout the store.

A&J Produce Corp. 126-144, 450-463 718-589-7877

Armata, E. Inc. 106-125,369-370, 372-376 718-991-5600

Best Tropical Produce 237, 400-402 718-861-3131

Cochran Robert, T Co., Inc. 408-412 718-991-2340

C and J Brothers, Inc. 238-241, 258-259, 266-268 718-991-5050

Coosemans New York, Inc. 242-244, 249 718-328-3060

D’Arrigo New York... 301-320, 323-330, 332-336 718-991-5900

Fierman Produce Exchange, Inc. 247-248, 250-257 718-893-1640

Food Barn 31B 718-617-3800

FresCo LLC 153-157 718-589-5000

Georgallas Tomato & Produce 447-449 718-842-6317

Gold Medal Produce 163-168 718-893-5554

Henry Haas, Inc. 464 718-378-2550

Issam Kanawi 331 718-542-2217

Katzman S. Produce, Inc. 200-233, 260-265, 423-433 718-991-4700

Lee Loi Industries, Inc. 234-236 718-542-4115

Mabijo 271 718-893-1640

M&R Tomato Distributors, Inc. 149-151 718-589-8500

Margiotta, J Company, Inc. 100-105 718-378-5800

Mendez Int’l. Tropical Fruit & Veg 152,158-162 718-893-0100

Nathel & Nathel, Inc. 347-350, 352-365, 367-368 465-468 718-991-6050

National Farm Wholesale Corp. 437 718-617-6229

Pan Hellenic Food Corp. 434-436, 440-444 718-328-8654

Porricelli Jerry Produce 342 718-893-6000

Renella, J. Produce, Inc. 351 718-991-4210

Right Choice Papers Inc.. 366 718-328-0011

Rubin Bros. Produce Corp. 147-148, 269-270, 272-274 718-589-3200

Top Banana LLC 403-407, 413-420, 438, 439 718-328-6700

A.J. Trucco, Inc. 337-341, 343-344 718-893-3060

Yola Produce 371 516-292-8821

FIVE WAYS TO SELL MORE ORGANIC CITRUS

The foundation items — oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, lemons and limes — have the most tonnage and largest volume.

BY CAROL M. BAREUTHER, RD

Ifyou look at the COVID cup half full, the pandemic provided a shot in the arm to boost healthy eating. In fact, 46% of consumers said they wanted to eat more healthy in 2022, making it the highest-ranked lifestyle change, according to a January released survey by Nextbite, a virtual restaurants leader headquartered in Denver, CO.

The citrus category — especially organic citrus — brimming with immune-boosting vitamin C, has benefited. Case in point, organic citrus was a strong performer in 2021, with double-digit increases in sales (10.6%) and volume (13.4%) over the year prior, according to the State of Organic 2021 report, released in February by the Organic Produce Network.

“During the pandemic, all citrus picked up due to the health value. Organic sales are less than 10% of our business, but items like salads, kale, carrots, apples, and citrus are the heavy lifters,” says Mark Hendricks Sr., produce director at Pyramid Foods, a Rogersville, MO-headquartered nearly 50-store retailer whose banners include Price Cutter, SaveA-Lot, and Country Mart.

1. FOLLOW SEASONAL AVAILABILITY

U.S.-grown organic citrus and organic limes from Mexico collectively supply retail shelves year-round. However, there are seasonal variations in specific types of citrus.

“In the summer, we offer organic lemons,

Valencia oranges, and California Star Ruby grapefruit,” says Christina Ward, senior director of global marketing for Valencia, CA-headquartered Sunkist Growers. Sunkist, which has witnessed this category’s rapid growth, especially within the last decade, has provided USDA-certified organic citrus for over 15 years.

Some 90% of California-grown organic citrus is harvested and sold from October to May, according to Craig Morris, category director for citrus and grapes at Homegrown Organic Farms, in Porterville, CA. “Our fruit

comes from farms within a 250-mile radius, so we’re usually among the first to start and have fruit right through to the end of the season.”

Organic navel oranges return in the fall, says Sunkist’s Ward, followed by a December start for organic blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Minneola tangelos and California mandarins.

Wintertime is the peak season for varieties like organic variety tangerines, blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Cocktail grapefruit, Pummelo grapefruit, Oro Blanco grapefruit, and kumquats, adds Robert Schueller, director of public relations for Melissa’s/World Variety Produce, based in Vernon, CA. “In the winter, 2021 versus 2022, we saw a 17% increase in the sales of the variety organic citrus category.”

In the spring, Schueller adds, the varietal sales decreased to 14% due to the end of navel orange, variety tangerine, kumquat and variety grapefruit season.

2. STOCK WHAT’S HOT

Navels, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons and limes are the top-selling organic citrus at New Seasons Markets, a 19-store chain headquar

Go big on organic citrus sets that take advantage of the greatest variety available to capture more sales.

PHOTO

Sunkist Growers, which has witnessed the organic citrus category’s rapid growth, has provided USDA-certified organic citrus for over 15 years.

PHOTO COURTESY SUNKIST

organic marketing Citrus

tered in Portland, OR. “We carry the stan dards. When it comes to large quantities of a certain size, organic isn’t there yet. It’s not as evolved as conventional citrus in terms of volume,” says Jeff Fairchild, produce director.

Indeed, it’s the foundation items — oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, lemons, and limes — rather than specialty varietals that have the most tonnage and largest volume, says Homegrown Organic Farms’ Morris, who calls them “the hardware items of the category.”

Organic navel oranges and Valencia oranges increased 12% and 7%, respectively, in sales between 2020 and 2021, according to company-specific data shared by Melissa’s/ World Variety Produce. For organic grapefruit, the dollar percent increase was 9%, with 17% for lemons and 16% for limes. Of note is that the sales increase for variety oranges (Cara Cara, blood), variety tangerines (satsuma, pixies) and variety grapefruit (Pummelo, Cocktail, Oro Blanco) averaged 9% to 18% during this time.

“We did try organic Minneola without much success, but have done well with Gold Nuggets,” says Homegrown Organic Farms’ Morris, whose offerings also include clemen tines and Meyer lemons.

Organic mandarins will soon be a bigger

slice of offerings from Fruit World Co., a family-owned grower based in Reedley, CA, says Bianca Kaprielian, co-owner and chief executive officer. “Over the next two to three years, we are converting more of our acreage into organic mandarins due to demand. Mandarins are a big pull into the produce department.”

Fruit World's program starts in early November with organic Satsumas and clem entines, and continues into April with addi tional varieties.

The company is also expanding its acreage on organic navels, including heirloom navels, and has planted organic mandarinquats, kumquats and lemonade lemons.

There is a growing interest in organic limes, says Nicolas Giraldo, director of product management, limes, at Delano, CA-headquar tered Wonderful Citrus. “Given this interest, many major national retailers have encouraged us to offer organic limes. We have organic Persian limes available year-round, with vari

ations in availability throughout the year. Although we have a limited volume, organic limes have proven to be an advantageous addi tion to our lime offerings. We have identified new supply countries that are expanding their organic lime crops to fill the gaps in supply during certain windows of the year.”

3. PACK IT UP

The organic shopper doesn’t want pack aging, but the retailer would rather have organic packaged to assure the right ring, says New Seasons Markets’ Fairchild. “We offer 3-pound organic navels, Cara Caras and grapefruit. Our organic bagged fruit has increased 40% in sales, but 80% of our organic citrus is still sold bulk.”

Sunkist Growers has introduced new pack aging for its organic line of citrus this year.

“The packaging promotes sustainability with a paper net header and cotton thread for more convenient recycling. The design celebrates our California heritage, too, with the return of the popular Sunkist lollipop logo. The retro logo symbolizes the sustain able farming practices used by our grower members, which we know is an important deciding factor at retail for today’s shoppers,” says Ward. “The new packaging resonates with millennial and Gen Z shoppers, as more than half of respondents in a recent Sunkist commissioned study felt the retro lollipop logo brings about positive emotions.”

4. BOOST SALES

Starting in November, in advance of Thanksgiving, and right through February, build big organic citrus sets that take advan tage of the greatest variety available, recom mends Fruit World Co.’s Kaprielian. “The old adage, ’pile it high and watch it fly’ holds true. Go big on displays, especially at the start of the season to let shoppers know its peak season for citrus.”

Organic citrus, on average, commands a price premium of 49% over its conventional counterparts.

Price promotion helps, but consistently stocked displays are an effective way to promote organic citrus.

PHOTO

organic marketing Citrus

As for integrating versus segregating organic and conventional fruit, Kaprielian says it depends on region and shopper. “That said, if a retailer has always displayed one way, try another. It’s the dawn of a new era in this post-pandemic world and changing up display methods might increase sales.”

Of note, organic citrus sells best in the Southern U.S. ($87.7 million, up 19.9% yearover-year), according to the OPN’s State of Organic 2021 report. The West is next ($76 million, up 2.8%), followed by the Northeast ($59.6 million, up 7.1%), and Midwest ($36.8 million, up 14.4%).

At Pyramid Foods, organic citrus is usually grouped together on endcaps or tables, says Hendricks. “Many times, like in the case of lemons, we venture outside the department to places like the seafood shop or refrigerated or dry tea aisles in grocery.”

Limes could be considered a staple in some households, however, it’s still important to put limes on display during key consump tion windows, like during the summer, adds Wonderful Citrus’ Giraldo. “Cross-merchan dising with complementary items such as avocados could also drive incremental sales.”

Since in-store is the No. 1 source of aware

ness for citrus shoppers, Sunkist offers a robust marketing and merchandising program to support retailers with display bins and pointof-sale (POS) materials for all organic citrus varieties, including navel oranges, lemons, California mandarins, and specialties like Cara oranges, blood oranges, and Minneola tangelos, according to Ward. “New organic packaging and merchandising include the display master, full carton, organic lemon 1-pound net and pouch bag, and the 8-pound Valencia orange combo bag.”

5. PROMOTE BEYOND PRICE

“We advertise four items each week in our ad circular and oranges, easy peelers, lemons, and other fruit items seem to be the most popular. Our customers do a lot of juicing and the lemons, and oranges are naturals,” says Pyramid Foods’ Hendricks.

Price promotion helps, but consistently stocked displays are an effective way to promote organic citrus, says Melissa’s Schueller. “So is signage and education at the display, letting shoppers know why organic costs more.”

Organic citrus, on average, commanded a price premium of 49% over its conventional counterparts, according to the OPN’s State of Organic 2021 report.

“Due to this price differential, retailers will often carry a 3-pound bag of citrus in the organic and a 4-pound size in the conven tional. Also, taking advantage of different sizes of organic fruit, based on where the crop is sizing, can help narrow the difference in sticker price,” says Homegrown Organic Farms’ Morris.

Telling the story behind how organic fruit is produced can provide shoppers with a value-add to explain the higher pricing.

“Consumers are increasingly conscious about what foods they purchase,” says Wonderful Citrus’ Giraldo. “Our lime program is Fair Trade Certified, which ensures that a portion of sales is invested directly back into the communities where they are grown. Educating consumers about where their food comes from can often influence them to choose organic citrus, instead of selecting purely based on cost.” pb

Sunkist Growers is offering new organic packaging and merchandising, such as the display master, full carton, organic lemon 1-pound net and pouch bag, and an 8-pound Valencia orange combo bag.

PHOTO

SWEET TREAT: SHOPPERS CLAMOR FOR PEACHES

Even when summer wanes, retailers can still satisfy consumers who love peaches.

BY MIKE DUFF

Peaches

are a seasonal star in the produce section, but change is afoot in their growing and retailing due to innovations and market changes.

The retail market for peaches is changing, as some food retailers are emphasizing unifor mity in quality and size. And similar size and count per pound provides greater consistency appreciated by consumers ordering online.

Yet, a countercurrent exists, exemplified by the demand for local fruit in and around major growing areas. In some cases, that has even encouraged peach growers to go direct to consumers via physical stores and stands, or digital sales. Although not any real threat to traditional retail sales, the move by growers to sell direct to consumers who believe the best way to get fresh, flavorful fruit is through the farm itself suggests that consumers will reward whoever sells peaches and other fruit that provides the best eating experience.

Melick’s Town Farm is a New Jerseybased grower, as well as farm-based retailer and agrotourism participant. Today, Melick’s operates the Oldwick and the Bridgewater Farm Market, and sells its own-grown fruits and vegetables, as well as other products. The Califon Orchards is where Melicks offers consumers peach picking, with over 30 vari eties available.

Peter Melick, co-owner of Melick’s Town Farms, headquartered in Oldwick, NJ, says consumers in its portion of the Garden State wanted to shop differently for produce during the pandemic, and Melick’s complied by keeping its seasonal, open-air, retail business open longer than usual.

“It [the pandemic] was good for us,” he says. “We kept our doors open.”

Melick says retailers he knows have become more concerned with centralized purchasing and distribution and less ready to pull directly from local growers. In that case, the growers can step in and serve consumers who want a taste of the country, and its fruits.

Titan Farms, Ridge Spring, SC, a major

eastern U.S. peach grower and shipper, is pursuing the shipped fruit business, and to get involved with agritourism, according to Chalmers Carr III, owner, president, and chief executive of Titan Farms. “It’s our No. 1 initia tive. We’re going to do tours for a couple of years, then you pick it.”

Still, grocery retailers satisfy the bulk of consumers who love peaches even when summer wanes.

TIGHT CROP

On the East Coast, some cold weather affected, but didn’t undermine, the peach crop. Carr expects 60% to 65% of the normal crop would ship, and in New Jersey, Melick says growers would have about 75% of a full crop.

Bonnie Lundblad, chairperson of the New Jersey Promotion Council and a salesperson at Sunny Valley International, a Glassboro, NJ, distributor, says this season’s New Jersey crop will be a bit less than a full crop. “Some growing regions in the northern part of the state lost more of the crop than growers in the southern part of New Jersey,” she says. “Most of the commercial production comes from the southern part of the state, where the estimate is for a solid crop.”

Carr says his early fruit was a bit small, but good quality. His mid- and the later-season

varieties run from July to September. South Carolina is the second largest producer of peaches after California and before Georgia.

Out west, Courtney Razor, director of member services & communications, Cali fornia Fresh Fruit Association, says peach season in California typically runs from June to September. “Overall, what we are hearing is that production is a little down from the past few years.”

At Homegrown Organic Farms, a grow er-shipper based in Porterville, CA, Stephen Paul, category director, says peach season at HGO began in mid-May, but has been extended by varietal developments and prac tices so it now goes through mid-September. He says from mid-June to mid-August, HGO will deliver some of its peak peaches to customers across the United States.

But, Paul adds, California’s drought is another challenge that affects the market, which has been compounded by the polit ical landscape and poor water management. Without regulations that ensure ground water recharges, the challenge to growers, particularly small farmers, is going to just get greater.

The season opened up nicely for Wawona, Cutler, CA, where the peach operations proceed from April to the end of October. It

Given the attraction as a key seasonal fruit and their relative perishability, peaches can drive volume to benefit the entire produce department.

procurement Late-Season Peaches

is about eight days ahead of schedule and by June, as is typical, size improved and brix was expected to continue “very good,” says George Papangellin, Wawona director of sales strategy & systems.

PUSH PEACHES EARLY AND INTO LATE SEASON

Retailers may want to get more aggressive in presentation. Given the attraction as a key seasonal fruit and their relative perishability, peaches can drive volume to benefit the entire produce department. High profile displays can generate incremental sales, as not every shop ping list includes peaches, but produce depart ment visitors can’t miss the aroma and, so, the temptation of fresh peaches.

This spring, Adam Shapiro, owner of the Green Way Markets in Maplewood, NJ, took space near the store entrance to feature peaches as they came into season. “Peaches, plums, nectarines, we use a table as a fixture, and make the whole upfront that,” he says.

“This is a seasonal, perishable item,” Carr adds. “We’re generally an impulse buy. Peaches smell good, they look good. That aroma is there.”

High-profile peach displays signal the beginning of summer and all that entails, which includes seasonal produce, says Lisa Davis Corrigan, Wawona’s director of marketing. “Consumers like the mix and seasonality of fruits and veggies,” Corrigan

says. “They tend to look forward to summer for the variety of sweet fruits and vegetables.”

Titan Farms’ Carr is concerned about retail labor shortages will affect peaches more than most other fruits and vegetables. Because peaches are more perishable than many other produce items, and because their color and aroma drive purchases, keeping displays well maintained, including the rotation out of product that’s past prime, is critical for peaches. Poorly maintained peach displays are also bound to suffer considerable shrink, which always invites scrutiny.

“The workforce has changed,” Carr says. “The people in stores who work the displays have to remove the bad peach or bananas or

n PEACH BREEDING SEEING REVIVAL

New peach varieties coming out of breeding programs are a plus for the peach sector and growers, given consol idation in the nursery business, which affects royalty fees, according to Stephen Paul, category director, Homegrown Organic Farms, Porterville, CA.

And when it comes to new varieties that may be less familiar to consumers, Wawona, Cutler, CA, works with retailers to ensure they understand the advantages.

“As we have new varieties come on line, we work with the retail teams to inform and educate them on best

the company is going to see shrink.”

Carr is an advocate of cross-merchandising to drive sales, particularly with market baking sections. He says a cross-merchandising promotion that paired Titan peaches with Driscoll raspberries was a significant success and wound up with the retailer involved running out of peaches.

Organic peaches, and organics in general, deserve the showroom effect, Homegrown Organic Farms’ Paul says. Retailers should create dedicated organic produce presentations to feature their assortment in the category, and to enhance the customer experience.

“Organic has to have its own area as part of the larger produce display,” he says. “We’re

handling practices and suggest points of differentiation for great sales results,” says George Papangellin, Wawona director of sales strategy & systems.

Some programs that developed peach varieties have gone by the wayside, but Chalmers Carr III, owner, president and chief executive of Titan Farms, Ridge Spring, SC, says they are seeing a revival including, in South Carolina, at Clemson University.

Whether the term is corporate or agri cultural, varieties are important. Carr indi cates that several exceptional varieties of peach have emerged from South Carolina breeding and that breeding in California is leading to interesting variations as well.

Carr also points to Florida, which has been developing low-chill varieties, as another example of advances that will help the peach sector in general. The Florida peaches eat well, he says, but aren’t necessarily large, and are some times known as ‘Florida babies.’ pb

High profile peach displays can generate incremental sales, as not every shopping list includes peaches, but produce department visitors can’t miss the aroma and, so, the temptation of fresh peaches.

PHOTO COURTESY

Lori Anne and Chalmers Carr of Titan Farms inspect their crop of peaches in South Carolina.

asking people to pay a premium. And they don’t want to have to move all around, shop ping from one side of the produce section to the other.”

Corrigan says Wawona, which offers the Prima brand, wants peach displays to draw attention, but also to convey health benefits and provide preparation ideas. The company, she says, has seen demand for new, creative recipes and other prep inspiration.

“Merchandising displays such as using our branded bins help the consumers see the fruit immediately,” Corrigan says. “Our marketing materials are eye-catching to entice the consumer, but provide health benefits. We also offer usage ideas for our consumers so they can go beyond the cobbler and into salads, grilled, smoothies and in a lunch box. There is so much more we can use stone fruit for.”

USE SECONDARY DISPLAYS

Peach sales can get a lift with properly maintained secondary displays, and retailers will get a pay off by cross-merchandising.

“Secondary displays are always important especially if merchandised as a cross-promo tion or to offer usage ideas. I would like to see stone fruit merchandised beyond the produce department, like in the baking, cereal and yogurt aisles,” says Corrigan.

Donna Watson, industry communica tions, Division of Marketing and Develop ment, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Tallahassee, FL, says her organization’s promotion support program encourages secondary peach displays.

“We partner with retailers through our Retail Incentive Program to promote Florida peaches through Fresh From Florida themed bins. Traditionally used in the produce section, displaying Florida peaches in the Fresh From Florida bins in other areas of the store can catch the consumer’s attention and lead to impulse purchases,” she says.

Many in the peach sector will say keeping merchandise efforts strong through the summer and past Labor Day can benefit retailers. Wawona is among the operators that urge retailers to run peaches into the begin ning of fall.

“Retailers should always embrace lateseason peaches,” Corrigan says. “The best fruit drives incremental sales.”

Lundblad notes the New Jersey’s peach season ends in mid-September, but that a sales drop-off begins around Labor Day. That can be the time for retailers to consider price promotions to keep sales going and to get the maximum benefit from peach season.

The New Jersey Peach Promotion Council (PPC), Glassboro, NJ, has been confronting

the post-Labor Day drop-off in peach sales using different devices, says Pegi Adam, marketing and promotions consultant.

“PPC generally puts out information via press releases, Facebook and websites for Jersey Peaches and Jersey Fresh that peaches are still in season and delicious,” she says.

HELLO, LORI ANNE

On a market exclusive basis, Titan offers the Lori Anne peaches, which is a peach the company describes as having a taste like no other. Rochester, NY-based Food Markets

has a page devoted to the fruit on its website, picturing Carr and his wife Lori Anne, where the variety is characterized as “sweet, juicy and fragrant.” A video touts the Lori Anne peach as a Wegmans’ exclusive and characterizes it as “the perfect blend of sweetness and that little twang of tartness you only find in tree-ripened peaches.”

Wegmans spokesperson Laura Camera says the Lori Anne peaches arrived in stores in late June, “and we let our customers know through digital tactics and in-store displays and signage.” pb

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For where to buy, how to store, display tips & more facebook.com/newjerseypeaches

New Jersey Peach Promotion Council

Everyone’s Scrambling to Secure

Pallets and Keep Supply Chain Moving

The pallet industry is adjusting to the new normal of an always-changing business environment.

BY MIKE DUFF

Thepallet industry has been working to find new ways to deal with a business environ ment in turmoil — supply chain issues, inflation, labor, freight, retail, wholesale and shortages.

“This is a real adjustment period to the new normal with the volatility in supply, pricing, ongoing labor issues,” says Jason Ortega, vice president, public affairs, for the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association, Alexandria, VA. “Everyone within the manu facturing sector is dealing with real swings.”

He says manufacturers are coping by being more dynamic and keeping more materials on hand — when they can get them. Anything including wood and nails could be subject to shortage, so adjustment means maintaining more raw material inventory. Even then, manufacturers have had a hard time getting the right labor, Ortega adds.

“COVID has been a catalyst for change in the world of plastic pallets due to supply chain disruptions, wood pallets being expensive and not available, high desire for hygienics and cleanliness in food customers, and increased automation because of labor shortages,” says Alison Zitzke, senior product manager, ORBIS Corp., Oconomowoc, WI.

She says plastic pallets have become the go-to for many customers because of the avail ability and lifespan when compared to wood. “Customers have been able to justify investment in these assets with a focus on long-term ROI.”

Today, Zitzke says, a lot of companies are thinking about durability, hygienics and reli ability when they are reviewing pallet needs.

“In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of automated systems along the food supply chain. Reusable plastic pallets are optimized for automation as they are dimen sionally consistent, creating a smooth inter face between automated systems and product loads.”

Jeff Pepperworth, president and chief exec utive of iGPS Logistics, Orlando, FL, says alternatives to wood pallets are getting more consideration.

“Both manufacturers and retailers, such as Costco, are recognizing the benefits of plastic.

Because our pallets don’t have protruding nails and splinters, they are safer to handle and don’t create messes in warehouses and trucks, and they also flow through automated equipment more easily,” Pepperworth says. “They are also lighter, which makes them not only safer, but also better for the environment. Less fuel burned during shipping means less green house gas emissions, which is a big deal when so many companies are focusing on sustain ability and setting net-zero emission goals.”

Jason Adlam, vice president, new busi ness development, CHEP USA, Alpharetta, GA, says the supply chain continues to be a difficult operating environment following the pandemic.

“With the initial peak, the way we employees worked shifted immensely, where resources and materials surged with demand in some industries and others, like foodservice, needed to redirect or rethink how to service their customers,” Adlam says. “These shifts challenged our business to be responsive to our customers’ demands and shift shipping lanes quickly. And we did it: More goods were shipped on CHEP pallets than ever before.”

LONGER LEAD TIMES, HIGHER PRICES

Gary Sharon, executive vice president, Litco International, Vienna, OH, agrees the pandemic supply chain issues set the stage for radical changes in the pallet sector.

“Before COVID, it was a competitive marketplace for pallets and packaging,” Sharon says. “Buyers could easily decide to change vendors for a small price difference. The supply of new and rebuilt pallets was able to meet demand with a short, five- to 10-day lead-time.”

Then, during the shutdowns, consumer purchasing shifted from services to durable and nondurable goods, he explains. “That shift increased demand for raw materials, packaging and pallets. In turn, it created a high demand for trucks and shipping containers.”

Earlier this year, a major pallet supplier significantly reduced its output, which led to “one of the worst shortages in history for new and rebuilt pallets,” says Sharon. “To deal with the increased demand, pallet manufacturers have tried to increase output, but material and labor shortages are making it difficult. Today, shortages in labor, raw material and finished goods continue to haunt manufacturers and consumers. Demand remains strong, but these shortages are contributing to long lead times.”

He says lead times will remain lengthy into 2023, but the severity will depend on region, labor and lumber supply.

“The increased demand in the pallet industry has stressed the availability of replacement parts, wood, fasteners and labor,” Sharon says, adding lumber prices peaked last year to historical levels for southern yellow

To meet increasing demand, wood pallet manufacturers have tried to increase output, but material and labor shortages are making it difficult, contributing to long lead times.

pine (SYP). The SYP prices have dropped, but remain higher than pre-COVID levels, and hardwood lumber prices have climbed to a new peak — over 33% compared to last year.

Sharon says just a few months ago, many companies were desperate to find pallets. “They would buy anything, at any price, to have a pallet to ship on. Since then, people have real ized that the cost of being without pallets far exceeds the amount it costs to buy them.”

“I don’t expect pallet availability and price to return to the previous way of doing business for an exceedingly long time. If ever,” he says.

The higher cost of doing business in the pallet sector today, including on materials, logistics and labor expenses, is consistent with what’s happening in other industries, Adlam says. The current challenge is the need to return pallets and other shipping platforms.

“In order to continue to fulfill household needs of fresh produce and FMCGs (fastmoving consumer goods), we need to work with every partner across the supply chain to return shipping platforms to where they need to be, like to a CHEP service center, where they can be repaired and shipped for reuse. That’s, unfortunately, part of the bottleneck we’re facing today.”

Businesses have choices as to how they handle pallets, but also have to look at the

changing needs as they consider the future.

“There are manufacturers who purchase limited-use pallets while others have their own internal pools,” he says. “Then, of course, there are organizations who outsource pallet fulfillment to CHEP.

“I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer, because it really is the result of how each individual supply chain operates and flow is structured, what kind of products are being shipped, how much space and resources they have, what regulations their supply chain faces, what their downstream customers require, and what their company values are. In today’s shortage environment, product availability is key, and customers may be settling for lessthan-ideal solutions just to keep their supply chains moving.”

INCREASING SUSTAINABILITY

COVID-19 and the way it has shaken up the economy triggered changes in the pallet industry, but sustainability is a long-term and evolving issue that has promoted innovation.

ORBIS Corp.’s Zitzke says plastic pallets have evolved as manufacturers consider new, technologies and more efficient manufac turing means. In tapping the recycled material stream, in one example, pallet manufacturers help to support customer sustainability goals

and hedge against disruptions in the raw material supply chain.

“Companies are constantly looking to increase sustainability in their supply chains, including their packaging,” Zitzke says. “This has put reusable plastic packaging in the spotlight for its sustainable advantages and long, useful life. Today, companies can turn to their own supply chain for opportunities to recycle post-industrial waste into reusable plastic packaging. For example, companies that are making plastic products and have scrap left over can work with a reusable plastic packaging manufacturer to incorporate that waste into new solutions. Retailers also are pushing for their suppliers to utilize reusable plastic packaging, as it reduces waste across the supply chain.”

In an especially eco-friendly context, she says, some reusable plastic packaging manu facturers are using innovative material streams, including coastline plastic waste at risk of entering the oceans and incorporating it into supply chain packaging.

“Customers also are interested in reusable plastic pallets as they are not only made with recycled material, but they also are fully recy clable at the end of life,” Zitzke says.

Ortega points to the environmental virtues of wood pallets.

“Wooden pallets are 100% renewable, recyclable and have a 95% recycle rate,” he says. “That checks a lot of boxes as to the environment and sustainability. The wood pallet is a product that is good for the envi ronment and potentially carbon net positive.”

At the same time, the association and wood pallet industry recognizes it can do more, especially in making customers and the public aware of product eco-friendliness.

“The sustainability issue is something we were working on before the pandemic with industry members — really trying to quantify that and have third-party certifi cation,” Ortega says. “As the supply chain stabilizes, we’re going to continue working on improving sustainability throughout the industry.”

Litco’s Sharon says more companies want to explore pallets proven to be sustainable. “Wood-based pallets can be recycled, making them an excellent fit in the circular economy,” he says. “A circular economy is a comprehen sive approach to recycling packaging products back into the supply chain. The goal is for the best allocation of resources, waste reduction

n WOOD VS. PLASTIC

Which is a better, more sustainable pallet: wood or plastic? It depends on who you talk to.

Alison Zitzke, senior product manager, ORBIS Corp., Oconomowoc, WI, says upfront prices may make wood pallets attractive to some potential customers, but users need to weigh their long-term value versus those made of materials that can have advantages in reusability.

“The durability of reusable plastic packaging products allows them to last for many cycles through the supply chain, leading to a compelling ROI,” Zitzke says. “In fact, making the switch to reusable plastic pallets reduces solid waste by 72% and energy usage by 71%.”

She says sales for plastic pallets have risen in the last few years and are expected to continue on an upward trajectory. That’s because current higher prices and scarcity of wood pallets have opened up many opportunities for plastic that may have been harder to justify before. “Conversions that used to take years to justify are coming to life more quickly.”

Jason Ortega, vice president, public affairs, for the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association, Alexandria, VA, doesn’t want anyone to forget the virtues of wood pallets.

and a decrease in the environmental impact of production and usage.”

Sharon asserts Litco was at the forefront of the sustainability movement before it became a popular cause.

“Our Engineered Molded Wood pallets were the first to be certified Cradle to Cradle sustainable by MBDC,” he says. “This desig nation acknowledges continuous innovation and improvement of products and processes to benefit people and the environment. They are also certified BioPreferred by the USDA for utilizing a substantial percentage of plantbased materials.”

Sharon explains the pallet line is engi neered for strength, stiffness and function ality, and are compression molded from pre- and post-consumer wood waste that has been diverted from the landfill.

At iGPS, Pepperworth says technology is giving pallet producers new ways to manage evolving consumer needs.

“Pallets are no longer seen as just a ship ping platform,” he says. “They are now a smart asset that provides greater insights and intelligence into the operations of the

supply chain. For example, all of our pallets contain RFID tracking chips so their prog ress through the supply chain can be moni tored. We know where the pallet is, where it has been, and how many trips it has taken.”

At CHEP, sustainability is an ongoing process, says Adlam. “I wouldn’t say the pandemic and current consumer demand have changed our evaluation of mate rials used in our platforms because we’ve continued to evaluate product development for the supply chain of the future, not the supply chain of today.”

He adds CHEP is constantly looking to eradicate empty miles and reduce waste.

“Given the end-to-end supply chain visibility we have from our market position, we are able, and have, partnered with some unlikely customers to reduce cost and erad icate empty transport miles,” Adlam says. “One customer needed to get a load from Atlanta to Orlando, while the other needed to get one from Orlando to Atlanta. We identified this opportunity and paired the two, resulting in CO2 emissions reduction and cost savings for both parties.” pb

“From a pure utility basis, wooden pallets are economical in comparison and highly customizable,” he says. “We have a pallet design system that allows the industry to customize pallets to load a load rating. So the industry offers some thing that aligns with needs and, so, wood pallets continue to dominate the marketplace.”

Gary Sharon, executive vice presi dent, Litco International, Vienna, OH, says wood is still the most common material for pallet construction “because it can be quickly cut into assorted sizes, with minimal equipment change-over time.”

But because of the increasing prices and longer lead times, pallet users are more likely than ever before to consider alternate materials and designs, he adds, pointing to Litco's Engineered Molded Wood pallets, which it introduced into the U.S. marketplace over 40 years ago. Manufactured in two locations, these Litco pallets are made from pre- and post-con sumer wood waste and a binding agent, and are compression molded under high heat and pressure.

Wood works in many, if not all, contexts, says Jason Adlam, vice presi dent, new business development, CHEP USA, Alpharetta, GA.

“Wood has always been a safe,

durable, sustainable and cost-effective material for pallet design, as it is repair able, recyclable, reliable and plentiful. That’s why it is the source material of choice for many products used today, from toilet paper to housing to pallets.”

Wood is a natural resource, yet it may not be perfect for every application or customer need, and every material comes with trade-offs, Adlam emphasizes. “As supply chain needs continue to increase in demand — and resources become more valuable — automation is being installed in more operations. But achieving those demands won’t be a small feat. The desires for lighter weighing, longerlasting, digitally enabled, highly speci fied, environmentally friendly pallet solu tions are growing. Plastic can sometimes provide those benefits, but it comes at a much higher price, three to four times the cost of wood.”

Even if known for its wood pallets, CHEP also is “an innovative company focused on delivering sustainable solu tions that meet our customer needs, regardless of the material,” Adlam says. “Our portfolio of products is evolving to meet the changing market needs by also looking to develop the right products, at the right performance and the right price to meet supply chain demands.” pb

An Appetite for Snack Sales

Dried apricot suppliers are looking to win this season, with merchandising near produce taking center stage.

BY MATTHEW KRAMER

Dried apricots are a yearround sweet, tangy, healthy snacking option. But this season, they will be priced slightly higher due to weather and current market conditions, according to some suppliers.

The domestic dried apricot business is in full swing, with the typical harvest starting in late May through mid-July. Turkey, the largest producer of dried apricots, is counter-seasonal to the U.S. market, with the Mediterranean dried apricot season kicking off in March.

This year, the California dried apricot harvest has been impacted by inclement weather, according to Dave Schanzer, chief executive, Traina Foods, Patterson, CA. “This year it’s 60% to 67% lower volume in certain sizes. It’s been quite disappointing. The jumbo sizes are still in abundance, but the smaller sizes are really down.”

Supply chain costs could also be a factor in the price increases. Even for Traina, which Schanzer points out is more immune as a vertically integrated, seed-to-package supplier, costs have been up. “Trucks are really expen sive, with diesel up substantially. Water issues have been pretty bad, and so water costs have also gone up.”

Retailers can expect to see at least some price increases across the board, says Schanzer.

“Dried apricots are a $55.7 million retail business, with dollars down slightly by 3.6% compared to a year ago. Factors contributing to the decline are increased shelf prices and a slight loss in distribution,” says Tiffany Allen, senior brand manager, specialty portfolio for Sun-Maid Growers of California, Fresno, CA, citing IRI Multi-Outlet latest 52 weeks ending June 12, 2022.

Allen also points to the success of the larger sizes in the dried apricot market at retail. “Larger size packages, those 32-ounce and above, are driving double-digit growth of 40.4% over the last year within apricots. Consumers may be seeking larger sizes due to the price value the larger sizes provide,” says Allen.

MERCHANDISE IN PRODUCE

Winners at retail in this category can expect merchandising best practices to remain largely the same.

“Our push has been merchandising with produce displays, carved out by fresh fruit,” says Schanzer. “The produce section is very well traveled and there is a convenience factor as well as impulse sales.”

“Dried apricots have been around for years, but seem to lack the visibility they deserve,” says Katharine Hawkins, director of marketing and e-commerce, Good Sense Foods, New Hope, MN. “With the increasing awareness of the health-conscious consumer and the market demand to provide healthy snacking options, retailers should be promoting and displaying dried apricots to generate awareness and capi talize on revenue. Merchandising dried apri cots with other dried fruits and nuts provides the consumer with a known destination.”

“Educating the consumer or inspiring them with product usage can sometimes be missed at store level,” adds Hawkins. “Providing product claims and nutritional benefits; imagery on usage ideas; recipes on packaging and website; in-store shipper displays with imagery; or cross-merchandising can all help promote the product.”

The primary merchandising vehicle is temporary price reductions followed by displays, Allen adds. “Quality merchandising of features and displays result in the highest consumer takeaway and helps drives better visibility for dried apricots and the brand on promotion.”

SNACK, BAKE AND COOK

Product introductions are also giving the category more life in the produce department. For example, Traina has introduced Fruitons, diced and sundried blends of dried apricots.

Schanzer notes, “These can be merchandised as a salad topper, snack packs and impulse sales.”

The reputation of dried apricots as a healthy snacking option can also benefit the category.

“We are finding more millennial consumers are gravitating toward dried apri cots as a snack they can take to work or when they go hiking or on other activities,” says Schanzer.

Allen notes the primary consumer for dried apricots are boomers and seniors/retirees who account for 57% of apricot purchases. “While millennials and Generation X do not buy more than expected, they still account for 43% of apricot sales,” says Allen, noting an IRI Consumer Panel Total U.S. All Outlet, latest 52 weeks ending June 12, 2022.

“The target consumer for dried apricots is the health-conscious consumer who is looking for an alternative snacking option to chips and other salty snack items,” says Hawkins. “Keeping these items merchandised together with other healthy dried fruits in produce creates a destination spot for the consumer to easily find what they are looking for.”

With millennials a prime growth target, social media and other marketing tactics could be key to sales. "While in-store is an important touch point, it is also essential to reach consumers before entering the store via social media and add to list options,” agrees Allen.

And don’t forget about the year-round versatility of dried apricots. “The seasonal sales peak for dried apricots is during the holiday season of November and December,” says Allen.

Spotlighting dried apricots in a produce section offers shoppers a convenient snack to grab, and also boosts impulse sales.

PHOTO COURTESY

retail perspective

Summer is Best Time to Rev Up Your Retail Operation

Weare entering the most important season of the year. During this period, we enjoy the peak production of many key fruit and vegetable items throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time that has historically provided us with the wide selection and variety of produce needed to pique consumer interest and drive sales.

After 2 1/2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, both produce operators and the consumer are ready for a return to more familiar conditions and normal shopping patterns. The time seems right for the innovative, progressive retailer to take action to spur consumer demand.

Management, meanwhile, seems to be content to consider only those items it can control and use the usual “toolbox” of controlling labor and promotional activity to maintain the present status quo. Never being the type of oper ators to take risks, management always errs on the side of caution. Considering the doldrums the industry finds itself in, this attitude by management once again proves “they just don’t get it!”

We have all experienced the challenges, trials and tribulations involved with oper ating and supervising through this long, never-ending pandemic. Because of pandemic-related factors, we did not use many opportunities to increase awareness of fresh produce and drive increasing sales and momentum in the retail store. It is now time to throw off the yoke placed upon our operations by the pandemic and begin to move our operations forward using the time-honored practices of promotion and display.

In order to achieve this, we must change our mindset from survival mode to more aggressive promotions to entice the consumer into stores to buy fresh produce.

This will be a challenge, as we have become quite accustomed to doing the bare minimum because of conditions that were out of our control. With restrictions loosened nearly everywhere, now is the time for the progressive produce retailer to return to those successful tactics of attractive displays of all fresh produce items in the promotion of their natural goodness and abundance during the summer season. While many industry experts and retailers may think this is premature, there is no better time for the produce industry to return to the tactics that have been so successful prior to the pandemic.

Given all these indications and possible opportunities, it would seem that now is the time for action.

It will take some innovative thinking to develop strategies to “rev up” all aspects of your operation, and start moving in a

positive direction. You will have to evaluate the challenges and clear the way for the availability of product to prepare attractive displays and attention-getting, sales-driving promotional activity.

We all recognize there have been supply chain problems, however using this peak production time will allow us to overcome tight supplies due to the sheer abundance of product available. We also must recognize the desire of the consumer to return to more normal patterns of shopping and purchasing. What better way to meet this desire than with the total promotion of all fresh fruits and vegetables available during the peak summer season?

Coupled with the abundant supplies of the major commodities are those that are produced locally, and we all know these are favorites with consumers across the country. There can be no better time to shift your operation into high gear to take advan tage of these opportunities.

The opportunity rests in your hands. You have the ability to move your operation forward and lead your individual market place in the return to normalcy in driving the sales of fresh produce. Consumers will welcome a return to what they enjoy and look forward to when shopping by returning to the excitement, color, fresh ness and quality presentation that produce can provide during the summer.

The nagging problem of inflation can be addressed by providing promotional activity on these peak supply produce items at their seasonally best prices and offering retails that provide true value. This action certainly represents a risk, however there are rewards of being the first retailer to move forward and aggressively promote fresh produce and all the benefits it represents. This type of positive action and return to a more normal fresh presentation and aggressive promotion will certainly be noticed by the consumer and help to revive and provide a positive impression in the minds of the customer.

I’m sure all of you feel there is pent-up demand in the market, and this sort of action and its possible risk could be the key to unlocking this potential. So, it’s up to you: Take a chance and put the pedal to the metal and take advantage of the opportu nity for increasing sales offered by fresh produce during the summer season.

Don’t be the retailer that misses the boat and doesn’t take advantage of this chance to move your operation forward. pb

Don Harris is a 41-year veteran of the produce industry, with most of that time spent in retail. He worked in every aspect of the industry, from “fieldto-fork” in both the conventional and organic arenas. Harris is presently consulting. Comments can be directed to editor@producebusiness.com.

We must change our mindset from survival mode to more aggressive promotions to entice the consumer into stores to buy fresh produce.

Foodservice Customers Need Partners, Not Vendors

BY TOM BRUGATO

Foodservice

certainly looks a bit different in a post-COVID world and in the midst of significant financial uncertainty.

Restaurants are getting busier, which is a good sign. However, most restaurants are still unable to find enough staff, and staff retention continues to be a major hurdle due to issues like health concerns, burnout, and the burden of enforcing ever-changing rules on frustrated diners. This, in combination, with higher costs and supply chain challenges has forced restaurant owners to make considerable adjustments to their operations.

Across the industry, this has led to significant reductions in their offerings and service levels, price increases being passed along, and much less empathy for their customers. Though restaurant models have changed to deal with these challenges, in most operations, there is no margin for error. Plus, the constant fluc tuation of rules and mandates have made their needs not only difficult to predict, but ever-changing. Very few have been able to return to anything close to their pre-COVID offerings and service levels.

At the same time, we wholesalers have many of our own challenges to address in order to keep pace with our foodser vice customers’ increasing needs. We are balancing the significant increase in demand for product and services with our own continued challenges of labor and supply line shortages. And though the unexpected is nothing new in the produce industry, we are dealing with more variables and unpredictability than ever before.

And now general inflation is compounding the escalation in costs the wholesale industry was already experiencing over the past two years. Conversations with customers around price have actually become easier amid inflation, but customers are looking beyond price to assess the value of goods and services. For restaurants, it’s one thing to pass along higher prices to diners, it’s another to receive little to no added value for that higher spend.

That’s why in order to maintain strong relationships with our foodservice customers, it’s critical that we keep in mind the unprecedented challenges they continue to face, while at the same time overcoming our own obstacles. We must recognize, now more than ever, that our foodservice customers need part ners, not vendors, and we must continue to evolve our services, both with their needs and expectations, and as inflation continues to impact the industry.

Walking this tightrope means many wholesalers are spending less time worrying about the competition, and more time focusing inward toward improving our own operations and executing the basics — like quality customer service. We have found the most successful strategy involves listening to their needs, and communicating openly regarding price increases, service level shortfalls and supply issues.

Those who are sensitive to the rapidly evolving needs of foodservice customers, and who work quickly to find ways to support those needs — while still ensuring their own models are priced appropriately — will have an edge, despite inflation and market uncertainty.

Here at Pacific Coast Fruits, we’ve incorporated several prac tices to align with our customers’ changing needs. For example, we’ve adopted more flexibility around our delivery schedules. In foodservice, our customers’ hours of oper ation continue to evolve as dining levels grow, and as they slowly find and train the staff needed to return to their pre-COVID schedules. Most restaurants scaled back dramatically, and they need wholesale part ners that can be accommodating as they add capacity and open for additional meals.

We’ve also found success in the will ingness and ability to expand into addi tional product categories. Customers want to source more from their most reliable partners, and many wholesalers have a lot of opportunity for increased sales by being able to deliver products that were historically sourced from other vendors.

So yes, things do look a bit different in a post-pandemic world and all of its operational challenges. However, those who survived have emerged more determined than ever to succeed. pb

Tom Brugato is the president of Pacific Coast Fruit Company in Portland, OR, a multi-generation, family-owned regional supplier of fresh and locally grown produce, founded in 1977. Pacific Coast Fruit Company is now one of the largest independent produce distributors in the Pacific Northwest, with over 425 employees and distribution centers and culinary kitchens in Port land, OR, and Kent, WA. Brugato has nearly 30 years of experience in the produce industry, serves on different industry committees and boards, and is currently the chairman of International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) Wholesaler - Distributor Board. In addition he sits on the executive board of IFPA, the PRO*ACT Strategic Planning Council Board, and is a member of the Central Eastside Industrial Council–Portland.

Paul Ornstein, Portland FS Director, also contributed to this column.

Although the unexpected is nothing new in the produce industry, we are dealing with more variables and unpredictability than ever before.

UK Campaign Boosted (And Sustained) Veg Consumption

SARA JONES

(Editor’s note: Produce Business Special Projects Editor Mira Slott recently completed an in-depth Q&A with Sara Jones, director of Pearl Metrics, London, England, for our sister publication, the Perishable Pundit. We share an excerpt from that interview here.)

Increasingproduce consumption has been an industry conun drum for years, and a challenge to understand what works and what doesn’t work, so it was exciting to hear the nonprofit Veg Power’s award-winning Eat Them to Defeat Them (EDDT) campaign resulted in UK vegetable sales increasing by 92 million pounds during the past three years, according to newly released data from Pearl Metrics.

Q: With this econometrics Veg Power study, you wanted to evaluate all factors that cause people to buy vegetables. So, you collected all these datasets of the key attributes driving sales. Were you able to analyze the relative weight of each one of these factors on vegetable sales?

A: Yes. We built a series of 11 models to evaluate the vegetable category. If we were to take the broccoli model, for example, we would be looking to build a statistical equation that says units of broccoli sales are, in any week, a function of the price and the weather, the economy, COVID, advertising, etc.

With econometrics, or multivariate regression, we are basically saying there are lots of things that are varying simultaneously, and we want to take them all into account at the same time. So, in any given week, what was the weather, what was the price, what was the distribution, what was the advertising level of investment, and how does the movement in all those variables help us understand why our sales fluctuate from week to week.

So we understand the role of price, for example, the changing price of broccoli on broccoli sales, and we have a slightly different relationship with price in the tomato model. Because the focus of the study is more on understanding the role of the Veg Power campaign, we don’t go into a huge amount of detail in reporting the pricing effect.

Q: According to the regression analysis, the EDDT program triggered a 1.6% increase of vegetable sales in the first year, then 2.4% in Year Two, and a 2.9% increase in Year Three. It appears when the campaign was on, there was an increase in vegetable sales, and then when the campaign was over, sales went down. Does the campaign have lasting power?

A: It’s a very good question, and an important one. Let’s take a step back and just think about what we’re doing generally with econometrics. Whenever we build a model, we are trying to understand the way consumers respond to media, generally. What typically happens with a brand campaign, let’s say when a TV ad airs, there will be some people who will go out immedi ately that week and purchase that product, but typically, it takes

quite a few weeks for people to be at the point when they want to make the purchase.

Q: I’m familiar with this idea of multiple repetitions to have an effect. Are you suggesting a conscious or subliminal effect with the campaign that encourages people to buy and eat more vegetables? And what is the staying power when the campaign’s not running? Is there evidence the behavior becomes more habitual over time?

A: So, the idea with econometrics, in general, is that we’re looking for correlations between the medium run time and the sales uplift. Once you’ve taken account of all the other factors that are driving sales, did we just see a very short-term blip in sales or did the advertising effect persist for several weeks, or did it, in fact, persist for several months. How closely do your model sales fit the actual sales, how do you make those two lines fit most closely? What’s the retention that gets you closer?

When it comes to the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign, it’s really exceptional. We find a very long advertising retention rate.

When the campaign stopped in 2019, at the end of March, the sales did start to come down, but they were still higher than the base level, for quite a few months to come. So, we’d say, people saw the campaign and they immediately went out and bought more vegetables, and a lot of those people then did revert back to their usual behavior, but there were a large number of people who were still buying more vegetables than they would have done otherwise for several months to come.

We knew it was important to have very detailed information on all the model structures, because this is quite an unusual finding — that we’ve got a very long retention rate from the campaign.

We showed particular proof points, which was that if we had reduced the carryover, that red line was going to come back down to zero more quickly, the accuracy of the model would have been inferior. We showed that the higher the retention rate, the better the model became. The other really interesting thing for me is it wasn’t true with just one of the models, it was true in all 11 vegetable models that we built. It is also true across all three years of the campaign.

In essence, we’ve got another model, and three years’ worth of campaigns. So, we’ve got 33 data points to test the theory that the campaign should cause a long-time change in shopping behavior; and they all point in the same direction, which is that they definitely caused people to buy more vegetables beyond the end of the campaign.

It does eventually come back down to your base level, and that’s why it’s important that this campaign happens every year, because people do eventually revert to their normal shopping behavior and then they need a top up, but this is really quite an exceptional response to media. pb

Celebrating the Impact of California’s Farm to School Program

BY AMY MYRDAL MILLER

Farmto school initiatives in California and across the coun try are not new. Leaders in California established a Farm to School Task Force in 2004 to coordinate farm to school programming through workshops, information sharing, policy advocacy and networking. A few years later, in 2007, a National Farm to School Network was established, and by 2010, USDA had established its Farm to School Program.

In 2013, the California task force became the California Farm to School Network, modeled after the national network and designed to become a larger, more inclusive group of leaders working on farm to school programs and projects. Today, the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) Office of Farm to Fork provides oversight for Farm to School programs.

CDFA released a report in February 2022, “Planting the Seed,” that outlined the following benefits of the robust, well-funded Farm to School program:

“Farm to school helps address [public health, economic, and climate] challenges by enriching the connection students have with fresh, nutritious food while supporting local food producers and promoting environmental resilience. Addi tionally, farm to school can increase equitable financial opportunities, economic growth, and market diversification for local producers by opening the doors to a billion-dollar institutional market. Moreover, buying fresh foods from local producers and supporting scratch cooking in school cafete rias can create new jobs and strengthen the local economy.”

The impact of the California Farm to School Program signifi cantly increased in 2020 when California Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $1.5 million per year in permanent funding for farm to school and an additional $8.5 million in one-time funding to pilot the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program. CDFA awarded the initial $8.5 million to 60 grantees in 2021.

Newsom then increased the state’s investment in the grant program to $60 million while also signing the “School Meals for All” legislation that will provide every K-12 student in California with free breakfast and lunch every school day, starting in the 2022-23 school year. This is a huge win for children’s food and nutrition security in California.

A recent budget proposal from the governor’s office — that will hopefully be approved by the legislature — includes an additional 63 cents per meal in state reimbursements for school meals. This is a huge win for California fruit and vegetable growers. School nutrition teams serve close to 6 million school meals to California school kids each day. More funding for school meals means more potential sales of locally grown, minimally processed fruits and vegetables.

In addition to celebrating the potential for increased sales, we can also celebrate the impact farm to school programs can have on fruit and vegetable consumption. Research shows farm to school programming in Wisconsin elementary schools increased the amount of fruits and vegetables offered at lunch by nearly 20% and increased consumption by 135%.

Another study evaluated the impact of combining farm to school programs with school gardens and cooking classes. The addition of food-focused, hands-on educational activities prompted students to eat three times as many fruits and vegetables compared to schools without the hands-on educational programming.

One of the most interesting recommendations in the CDFA “Planting the Seed” report is for the state to invest in scratch cooking infrastructure for K-12 schools, including updated kitchen equipment and culinary training for school kitchen staff. The authors of the report and school nutrition leaders all recog nize that, while serving kids fresh fruits and vegetables has impact, there will be greater impact on overall fruit and vegetable consumption if schools can transform fruits and vegetables in craveable, on-trend menu concepts that Gen Z students are demanding.

The report also calls for public-private partnerships to support school kitchen infrastructure. Is there an opportunity for produce companies and associations in California to invest in this area? I believe so. I recall Sunkist giving schools the equipment to cut navel oranges, saving schools labor dollars and giving kids, especially younger students, an easier way to enjoy fresh, sweet, juicy oranges. What other equipment could be given to schools that could have an impact on produce consumption?

Another strategy is culinary training: What can produce asso ciations contribute to the culinary knowledge and skills of school kitchen staff? The Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Kids Collaborative is a membership-based initiative for school nutri tion and culinary professionals. The members have a major focus on expanding scratch cooking in schools as well as increasing the number of culturally relevant plant-forward menu concepts. Supporting initiatives like that through sponsorship can help expand the impact of school meals on kids’ fruit and vegetable interest and intake.

Another option for produce companies and associations is funding scholarships for high school students who want to pursue school food careers. Having more professionally trained nutrition, foodservice, and culinary experts working in K-12 school nutrition programs will have a lasting impact on the quality and perception of school meals. pb

Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN, FAND is a farmer’s daughter from North Dakota, award-winning dietitian, culinary nutrition expert, and founder and president of Farmer’s Daughter Consulting, Inc. She is the foodservice strat egist for the Produce for Better Health Foundation, a member of the Texas A&M AgriLife External Advisory Board, a member of the Bayer Vegetable Seeds Horticultural Advisory Council, the registered dietitian for the Buy Cal ifornia Marketing Agreement / California Grown, and co-author of Cooking á

la Heart, a 500-recipe cookbook based on plant-forward eating cultures from around the world that will be published by Workman Publishing in early 2023. You can learn more about her business at www.farmersdaughtercon sulting.com, and you can follow her insights on food and flavor on social media @AmyMyrdalMiller

Ocean Mist Farms’ Standard of Excellence

Took Root Nearly 100 Years Ago

Ocean Mist Farms’ family farming roots were planted nearly 100 years ago when Daniel Pieri and cousins Amerigo and Angelo Del Chiaros launched the Cali fornia Artichoke & Vegetable Growers Corporation in 1924. Together, they leased land south of Castroville, CA, and soon Alfred Tottino, a local vegetable grower, joined the three men in their new business venture. The foursome set up shop in a tin-roofed shed at the Del Monte Railroad Junction in Castroville at a time when many growers had no electricity or telephones, and business was done with a handshake.

Around 1950, the company expanded its product line to include broccoli, fava beans, English peas, cabbage, cardone and fennel. The Del Chiaros left the business while the company continued to diversify and expand production acreage, adding new partners, the Bengard and Boutonnet families, who farmed mixed vegetables in the Salinas Valley.

Together, these families have led Ocean Mist Farms to become the largest grower of both conventional and organic fresh arti chokes in North America.

Artichokes are just the beginning, though. The full product line includes 30 other fresh vegetables, such as Ocean Mist Organic and the award-winning Season & Steam convenience vegetable lines.

When the company started, artichokes were harvested and packed in wooden bins in the field and brought into the junction shed to be sorted and packed for shipment across the country by rail car.

In nearly 100 years, the company has seen numerous changes in farming techniques, harvesting equipment, packaging materials and shopper dynamics. Most recently, the company welcomed a robotic weed thinning technology trial onto the farm.

“Our product line and consumer outreach regularly change to address new cooking methods and environmental awareness embraced by the shopping public,” says Chris Drew, chief exec

utive and president, Ocean Mist Farms.

New items include a 2-count Season & Steam Microwaveable Artichoke, an Instant Pot artichoke e-cookbook and a 2-count organic artichoke pack in a recyclable corrugated clamshell. During the pandemic, stay-at-home order, the company also started to sell fresh artichokes direct to consumer via a mail order partnership.

“Being nimble and welcoming change is a necessary part of Ocean Mist Farm’s DNA, at nearly 100 years young,” says Drew.

Today, third generation family members sit on the board of directors and the fourth generation works in the day-to-day opera tions. Plus, there are several longtime employees whose children have joined the company. “The outstanding quality of our products and the continued success of our company comes down to the people,” says Drew.

“As we march toward our 100-year anniversary, we honor our family farming legacy while embracing continuous improvement in all operations, including developing new value-added products that appeal to the changing shopper dynamic,” says Drew. pb

E. Armata, Inc. 800-223-8070 earmata.com

Maurice A. Auerbach 201-807-9292 auerpak.com

Maurice A. Auerbach 201-807-9292 auerpak.com

Babe Farms 800-648-6772 babefarms.com

Blue

Bushmans'

630-668-3500 producebluebook.com

800-826-0200 bushmansinc.com

Canadian Produce Marketing Association613-226-4187 cpma.ca

Capital City

515-981-5111 capitalcityfruit.com 21

Coast To Coast Produce 877-836-6295 ctcproduce.com 44

Colorado Potato Administrative Committee719-852-3322 coloradopotato.org 32

CrunchTime Apple Growers 716-300-8522 crunchtimeapplegrowers.com/ 39

D'Arrigo New York 718-991-5900 darrigony.com 56-57

Del Fresco 519-733-6101 delfrescopure.com 90

Del Monte Fresh Produce 800-950-3683 freshdelmonte.com 104

Dole Food Company, Inc. 800-356-3111 dole.com 2

Dole Food Company, Inc.

800-356-3111

Exp Group LLC...................................... 201-662-2001

Farmer's Daughter Consulting

Fierman Produce Exchange

916-234-3760

718-893-1640

Fresco LLC............................................ 718-589-5000

Fresh Origins

Genpro Transportation Services

dole.com

expgroup.us

760-736-4072

46-47

69

farmersdaughterconsulting.com................... 27

frescony.com

brightfresh.com............................................

genproinc.com

GPOD of Idaho 208-357-7691 gpodpotatoes.com

GPOD of Idaho 208-357-7691 gpodpotatoes.com

Gumz Muck Farms 608-981-2488 gumzfarmswi.com

Harris Consulting Solutions 269-903-7481

41

Heartland Produce

262-653-1000

heartlandproduce.com

90

Hunts Point Produce Market 718-542-2944 Huntspointproducemkt.com 36-37

Hunts Point Produce Market 718-542-2945 Huntspointproducemkt.com 66-67

I Love Produce 610-869-4664 iloveproduce.com 34

International Fresh Produce Association302-738-7100 freshproduce.com 6

S. Katzman Produce 718-991-4700 katzmanproduce.com 43

Keystone Fruit Marketing Inc. 717-597-2112 keystonefruit.com 79

Litco International 330-539-5433 litco.com 95

Litehouse Foods, Inc. 800-669-3169 litehousefoods.com 27

Michigan Apple Committee 800-456-2753 michiganapples.com 25

MIXTEC Group 818-541-0124 mixtec.net 25

Morning Kiss Organic 617-884-9033 morningkissorganic.com 88

Nathel & Nathel 718-991-6050 nnproduce.net 60-61

New Jersey Department of Agriculture 609-292-8853 jerseyfresh.nj.gov 86

New Jersey Peach Promotion Council 973-744-6090 jerseypeaches.com 93

New York Apple Association Inc. 585-924-2171 applesfromny.com 71

Niagara Fresh Fruit Co. 716-778-7631 niagarafreshfruit.com 78

Pacific Tomato Growers

Phillips Mushroom Farms.....................800-722-8818

PrimusLabs.......................................... 805 922-0055

Produce for Better Health Foundation... 302-235-2329

Skyline Potatoes

Skyline Potatoes

Sormac

Taylor Farms

31-77-351-8444

831-772-6664

sunripecertified.com

phillipsmushroomfarms.com

primuslabs.com

pbhfoundation.org

jvsmithcompanies.com

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sormac-inc.com

taylorfarms.com

Torrey Farms, Inc. 585-757-9941 torreyfarms.com

A.J. Trucco, Inc. 866-AJTRUCCO truccodirect.com

John Vena Inc. 215-336-0766 johnvena.com

Volm Bag 800-253-4737 volmcompanies.com

78

This image, circa 1950, shows Hugo Tottino, son of Alfred Tottino, one of Ocean Mist Farms’ original partners, loading a truck with artichokes for local deliveries from the original shed/cooler location in Castroville, CA.