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Here’s a look at Northwest fruit shipments, the upcoming pear season, and a glimpse at summertime imports from South American and Mexico.
Northwest cherry shipments are peaking, but loadings will probably be down significantly by mid-July. After a slow start due to late rains, Washington cherry shipments have hit stride the second half of June, with plenty of loadings heading into the Fourth of July. No record cherry shipments are seen this season, with the crop likely topping out at 16 million to 17 million boxes.
Pear Shipments
2015 fresh pear shipments forecast at nearly 20.4 million boxes. which is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2percent lower than the 2014 crop. Loadings should begin about a week earlier than last season, starting in late July.
Apple shipments, pear shipments from the old crop, and new crop cherry shipments – grossing about $4500 to Chicago, $7500 to New York City.
Chilean Orange Imports
The initial arrivals of Chilean imported navel oranges arrived recently in the U.S. with 11,200 boxes on the boat. Future arrivals at US ports on both coast will build in the weeks ahead and continue into early November.
Asparagus Imports
Good supplies of imported asparagus are arriving from Central Mexico by truck a US border crossings and by boat at US ports from Peru. “Grass” is a popular grilling item with many Americans over the Independence holiday.
Carrots and other vegetables are rich in beta carotene and zeaxanthin, which may lower the risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a recent study.
The study drew on data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, an examination of chronic disease in ten European countries, according to a news release from Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole Food Co.
Study participants who originally had the highest levels of beta-carotene or zeaxanthin in their blood had only about half the risk of developing pancreatic compared with those who had the lowest levels. The study also found that with each doubling of beta-carotene, sum of carotenoids or zeaxanthin in the blood, the risk of pancreatic cancer was reduced by 15%, 22% and 19%, respectively.
Dole recommends consumers eat carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin to get their beta carotene. For zeaxanthin, the company recommends spinach, kale, romaine, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. In Dole’s Kale and Carrot Tart recipe, dark green and orange vegetables are combined for an entrée packed with beta-carotene and zeaxanthin.
Kern County, California in the Bakersfield area is shipping carrots and potatoes – grossing about $6700 to Baltimore.
Publix and Trader Joe’s for the third year in a row, have been ranked by shoppers as their favorite grocery stores.
A Market Force study of 7,200 shoppers conducted online in April ranked the Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s first, the Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix Super Markets Inc., second and the Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi Inc., third, according to a Trader Joe’s news release.
The survey studied consumers’ grocery shopping habits and preferences, rating Trader Joe’s at 78% in consumer satisfaction and Publix at 74%.
Rounding out the top fiver were Aldi, Hy-Vee Food Stores Inc., West Des Moines, Iowa, and H.E.B., San Antonio. Among the top brands were Boise, Idaho-based Albertson’s and WinCo Foods and Bentonville, Ark.-based Sam’s Club who made this year’s list after failing to garner enough mentions in 2014, according to the release.
Publix and Trader Joe’s led in many areas, including cashier courtesy, fast checkouts and cleanliness, while Aldi, WinCo and Costco Wholesale Corp., Issaquah, Wash., took the top spots in the value category.
Shop-Rite Supermarkets, Edison, N.J., scored highest for sales and promotions while H.E.B, Hy-Vee and Kroger Co., Cincinnati, performed well in most areas.
Other study findings: nearly half prefer to buy organic products, 28% are buying prepared foods at least weekly, up 10% from 2014 and 39% have used a grocery app, primarily for coupons.
Louisville, Colo.-based Market Force is a global customer intelligence company that provides information for retailers, restaurants, financial institutions, entertainment studios and consumer packaged goods companies.
Eastern Shore vegetable shipments are underway for the summer from Virginia, Delaware and Maryland.
Fresh produce shipments typically start in early June, but those crops were a little late because of a cooler spring. Growers produce two fresh-crop seasons, except for potatoes which have just one season.
Virginia potato shipments began around June 20, and will be in full swing with good loadings by early July
Although numerous fresh produce items are grown in the Eastern Shore region, Virginia’s main crop is potatoes, which has between 3,000 and 4,000 acres.
Most of the potatoes produced in Virginia are shipped throughout the eastern U.S., as far west as the Mississippi River and include red, white, yellow and russet potatoes. When northern areas are not producing, much of the crop is distributed in those regions. When the Southern states stop producing, shipments are redirected to the South. Some of potatoes are distributed in Canada.
Dublin Farms in Horntown is one of the state’s biggest potato shippers.
The Eastern Shore also has significant acreage in tomatoes and green beans, with C&E Farms in Cheriton being the largest shipper of green beans. The farming operation produces about 750,000 bushels of beans annually off of its 5,000 acres.
The two major tomato operations on the shore are expected to produce about the same volumes of round, Roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes during this season, which runs from late June through September.
It should be a good summer for produce truckers who haul fruit out of the Northwest.
Cherry shipments are underway, while most other stone fruit crops will begin in mid-July, picking up speed as the calendar switches to August, and then going strong until the end of the month, with the late fruit still shipping out in early September. Northwest stone fruit shipments to Canada have been showing significant increases in recent years.
A little over one-third of American households purchase peaches, five times more than buy kale. Kale, of course, is the hot, trendy vegetable in America these days.
Apricot production ramped up in early June and was expected to continue through the month. Apricots are expected to be similar in size to last year’s large 7,500 ton crop. Organic apricots are making their mark. It may only be 2 percent of the U.S. category, but it’s growing at three times the rate of conventional.
Pear Shipments
The 2015 fresh pear shipments are forecast at nearly 20.4 million box equivalents, which equates to approximately 451,000 tons of fresh pears. The projection is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2 percent lower than last year’s crop. The estimate was collected from fresh pear growers in Wenatchee and Yakima, WA, and Mid-Columbia and Medford, OR, growing districts.
Northwest pear shipments start in late July with Starkrimson, followed by the Bartlett harvest in early August. Anjou, Red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Concorde, Forelle and Seckel will be picked from late August through September.
Apples, pears and cherries – grossing about $7300 to Orlando.
Michigan blueberry shipments will be down this season, but it’s a matter of how much. In New Jersey, blueberry shipments should be similar to a year ago.
Two bitterly cold winters back-to-back hit blueberry bushes in Michigan, causing “winter kill” that will reduce shipments for the 2015 season.
The severity of damage varies widely, though, with some growers saying the crop will be “slightly smaller” and others saying some varieties in some areas will be down 50 percent. Still, decent volume is being predicted for Michigan blueberries starting the second week of July with strong shipments through the end of August and possibly into September.
Michigan apples and vegetables – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
New Jersey Blueberry Shipments
New Jersey blueberry shipments got underway about a week ago and are now moving into good volumes. In 2014, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics service showed New Jersey growers produced more than 57.8 million pounds of blueberries on approximately 8,800 acres. New Jersey currently ranks fifth in national production. Early indications show that New Jersey is on track to match, if not exceed, 2014 totals.
Despite a mayoral pledge to revitalize operations, the nearly two-decade battle to modernize the Hunts Point Terminal Market’s distribution facilities appears no closer to completion.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in early March announced his administration plans to invest $150 million over 12 years to revitalize aging operations. However some Hunts Point wholesalers say the mayor wasn’t specifically talking about the Hunts Point Produce Terminal.
Instead, the mayor’s announcement was neighborhood-specific and was referring to all the food markets on the Hunts Point peninsula, which include the Fulton Fish Market and the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, which is also known as the Hunts Point Meat Market. When one does the math, $150 million over 12 years doesn’t amount to much and isn’t considered remarkable.
The $150 million isn’t anywhere near the $800 million needed to modernize operations, although the city is spending money to improve the market. It is pointed out that a $21 million project constructing railroad sidings alongside the market’s buildings and constructing an open-air rail shed on the market’s east side for freight car unloading is underway.
At the 329-acre facility, 115 wholesalers that employ more than 8,000 workers distribute from the market’s four buildings that were constructed in the late 1960s. Talks to move distributors out of the aging 500,000-square-foot market began in 2000.
Washington produce rates on apples, cherries – grossing about $7400 to New York City.
California’s Westside District, known for its cantaloupe shipments, gets underway this week.
The area gets its name from being located on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Centered around the town of Huron, the melons are starting a week to 10 days earlier than normal.
A number of California produce shipments shipped earlier than ever in 2014 and then broke that record this year. Melons are in a similar situation. The first California melons were shipped out of Brawley in the California desert on April 27. Yuma melons were early as well.
Despite the California drought, melons are still be produced with a key factor being that growers a shifted the location of their acreage to areas that have more water. Some have moved north, while other growers moved west or east or found land with well water when surface water wasn’t going to be available.
Cantaloupes have a short season crop and are considered a low water use crop, plus do well on well water.
The highest volume for Westside District cantaloupes will be from the end of June through the middle of October, if the weather cooperates in September and October.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for fruits and vegetables – grossing about $4900 to Houston, $6100 to Atlanta.
Clamshells, that clear plastic packaging you find in your local supermarket’s produce department has become a mainstay after being introduced a couple of decades ago.
Now, manufacturers of clamshells for strawberries and other fresh produce commodities have been tweaking the dimensions to satisfy both consumer desires and industry concerns.
The one-pounder is the clamshell is most popular, but other sizes, including the two-pounder and four-pounder, are gaining favor. Produce truckers may even notice some new packaging configurations. For example, F-D-S Manufacturing Co. in Pomona, CA, has introduced a two-pound clamshell with three different sizes, each of which allows for an eight-down pallet stacking configuration.
The three sizes of the clamshell and the ability to be packed in a tray that goes eight down on a pallet are equally important. While the outer dimensions of the clamshell remain the same, the inside needs to change a bit to fit different sizes of strawberries. As the season progresses, the average size of a berry changes and the inside dimensions of the clamshell must change to hit the weight advertised. Larger berries tend to be less dense so the clamshell has to be bigger to still get to the two-pound weight. Smaller fruit utilizes the inside space better and less mass is needed to reach two pounds of fruit. The same principle holds true when dealing with one or four-pound clamshells.
The eight down trays allow for better utilization of the cube of a refrigerated big rig trailer. In fact, with an eight down pallet, 30-35 percent more trays can be put in a truck. That is a huge freight advantage. The same freight advantage applies when shipping the empty clamshells to the grower. While this provide a freight advantage for the shipper, is the added weight enough to significantly cut into the what is being paid to the truck?
The four-pound clamshells also fit well in an eight down pallet configuration. Creating a one-pounder that offers that same freight advantage has been difficult.
The clamshell manufacturing industry has evolved over the years, and now virtually all the pellets being used to start the produce industry clamshells process come from recycled soda bottles. Depending upon the quality of the shipment, a small percentage of virgin material may have to be added to reach the quality level needed in the resulting clamshell. But overall, well over 90 percent of the material ultimately used comes from recycled product. And the clamshells themselves are recyclable.
Clamshells took over from plastic baskets in the strawberry industry more than two decades ago and now they account for at least 90 percent of strawberry containers.
n the decades long discussion to move Chicago’s wholesale produce businesses from the South Water Street Market to the current Chicago International Produce Market, one design compromise reached, was to keep the feel of the modern market, with open loading docks.
Chicago produce wholesalers “fought” for years over building a new market. The move finally came in 2002. Ironically, two individuals that were instrumental in making it happen – didn’t even move to the new market. Instead, Peter Testa of Testa Produce Inc., as well as Gene Ruffolo of C. Ruffolo & Sons moved elsewhere in Chicago. Ruffolo, who is located just across the Chicago River from the new Chicago Market is leasing space from one of the nation’s largest produce wholesale distributors, Anthony Marano Co. Marano built his gigantic facility before the new market was even built as he decided not wait on others to make up their minds what to do.
While some wholesalers wanted to keep an old time produce market feel, eventually concerns over food safety prevailed as cold chain considerations grew in the industry. This eventually led to the decision to enclose the front docks.
When the market opened a dozen years ago, the market’s back side was cold chain controlled for receiving produce. Customers loading on the front dock had a high overhang, but it wasn’t enclosed.
This spring the Chicago International Market is completing the addition of rolling doors — similar to large garage doors — to help protect the display dock.
The doors are not insulated to control the cold chain, but they will block blowing blizzards and the cold wind. The doors may have some influence in dock temperatures, but they will certainly cut the wind, wind chill and snow on the dock.
The winter two years ago was the final straw for many in making the decision to invest in the doors.
There are no heaters behind the new doors, but when it is minus 20 degrees, the snow at least will not be blowing across the dock.
Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
Here’s a look at Northwest fruit shipments, the upcoming pear season, and a glimpse at summertime imports from South American and Mexico.
Northwest cherry shipments are peaking, but loadings will probably be down significantly by mid-July. After a slow start due to late rains, Washington cherry shipments have hit stride the second half of June, with plenty of loadings heading into the Fourth of July. No record cherry shipments are seen this season, with the crop likely topping out at 16 million to 17 million boxes.
Pear Shipments
2015 fresh pear shipments forecast at nearly 20.4 million boxes. which is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2percent lower than the 2014 crop. Loadings should begin about a week earlier than last season, starting in late July.
Apple shipments, pear shipments from the old crop, and new crop cherry shipments – grossing about $4500 to Chicago, $7500 to New York City.
Chilean Orange Imports
The initial arrivals of Chilean imported navel oranges arrived recently in the U.S. with 11,200 boxes on the boat. Future arrivals at US ports on both coast will build in the weeks ahead and continue into early November.
Asparagus Imports
Good supplies of imported asparagus are arriving from Central Mexico by truck a US border crossings and by boat at US ports from Peru. “Grass” is a popular grilling item with many Americans over the Independence holiday.
Carrots and other vegetables are rich in beta carotene and zeaxanthin, which may lower the risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a recent study.
The study drew on data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, an examination of chronic disease in ten European countries, according to a news release from Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole Food Co.
Study participants who originally had the highest levels of beta-carotene or zeaxanthin in their blood had only about half the risk of developing pancreatic compared with those who had the lowest levels. The study also found that with each doubling of beta-carotene, sum of carotenoids or zeaxanthin in the blood, the risk of pancreatic cancer was reduced by 15%, 22% and 19%, respectively.
Dole recommends consumers eat carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin to get their beta carotene. For zeaxanthin, the company recommends spinach, kale, romaine, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. In Dole’s Kale and Carrot Tart recipe, dark green and orange vegetables are combined for an entrée packed with beta-carotene and zeaxanthin.
Kern County, California in the Bakersfield area is shipping carrots and potatoes – grossing about $6700 to Baltimore.
Publix and Trader Joe’s for the third year in a row, have been ranked by shoppers as their favorite grocery stores.
A Market Force study of 7,200 shoppers conducted online in April ranked the Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s first, the Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix Super Markets Inc., second and the Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi Inc., third, according to a Trader Joe’s news release.
The survey studied consumers’ grocery shopping habits and preferences, rating Trader Joe’s at 78% in consumer satisfaction and Publix at 74%.
Rounding out the top fiver were Aldi, Hy-Vee Food Stores Inc., West Des Moines, Iowa, and H.E.B., San Antonio. Among the top brands were Boise, Idaho-based Albertson’s and WinCo Foods and Bentonville, Ark.-based Sam’s Club who made this year’s list after failing to garner enough mentions in 2014, according to the release.
Publix and Trader Joe’s led in many areas, including cashier courtesy, fast checkouts and cleanliness, while Aldi, WinCo and Costco Wholesale Corp., Issaquah, Wash., took the top spots in the value category.
Shop-Rite Supermarkets, Edison, N.J., scored highest for sales and promotions while H.E.B, Hy-Vee and Kroger Co., Cincinnati, performed well in most areas.
Other study findings: nearly half prefer to buy organic products, 28% are buying prepared foods at least weekly, up 10% from 2014 and 39% have used a grocery app, primarily for coupons.
Louisville, Colo.-based Market Force is a global customer intelligence company that provides information for retailers, restaurants, financial institutions, entertainment studios and consumer packaged goods companies.
Eastern Shore vegetable shipments are underway for the summer from Virginia, Delaware and Maryland.
Fresh produce shipments typically start in early June, but those crops were a little late because of a cooler spring. Growers produce two fresh-crop seasons, except for potatoes which have just one season.
Virginia potato shipments began around June 20, and will be in full swing with good loadings by early July
Although numerous fresh produce items are grown in the Eastern Shore region, Virginia’s main crop is potatoes, which has between 3,000 and 4,000 acres.
Most of the potatoes produced in Virginia are shipped throughout the eastern U.S., as far west as the Mississippi River and include red, white, yellow and russet potatoes. When northern areas are not producing, much of the crop is distributed in those regions. When the Southern states stop producing, shipments are redirected to the South. Some of potatoes are distributed in Canada.
Dublin Farms in Horntown is one of the state’s biggest potato shippers.
The Eastern Shore also has significant acreage in tomatoes and green beans, with C&E Farms in Cheriton being the largest shipper of green beans. The farming operation produces about 750,000 bushels of beans annually off of its 5,000 acres.
The two major tomato operations on the shore are expected to produce about the same volumes of round, Roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes during this season, which runs from late June through September.
It should be a good summer for produce truckers who haul fruit out of the Northwest.
Cherry shipments are underway, while most other stone fruit crops will begin in mid-July, picking up speed as the calendar switches to August, and then going strong until the end of the month, with the late fruit still shipping out in early September. Northwest stone fruit shipments to Canada have been showing significant increases in recent years.
A little over one-third of American households purchase peaches, five times more than buy kale. Kale, of course, is the hot, trendy vegetable in America these days.
Apricot production ramped up in early June and was expected to continue through the month. Apricots are expected to be similar in size to last year’s large 7,500 ton crop. Organic apricots are making their mark. It may only be 2 percent of the U.S. category, but it’s growing at three times the rate of conventional.
Pear Shipments
The 2015 fresh pear shipments are forecast at nearly 20.4 million box equivalents, which equates to approximately 451,000 tons of fresh pears. The projection is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2 percent lower than last year’s crop. The estimate was collected from fresh pear growers in Wenatchee and Yakima, WA, and Mid-Columbia and Medford, OR, growing districts.
Northwest pear shipments start in late July with Starkrimson, followed by the Bartlett harvest in early August. Anjou, Red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Concorde, Forelle and Seckel will be picked from late August through September.
Apples, pears and cherries – grossing about $7300 to Orlando.
Michigan blueberry shipments will be down this season, but it’s a matter of how much. In New Jersey, blueberry shipments should be similar to a year ago.
Two bitterly cold winters back-to-back hit blueberry bushes in Michigan, causing “winter kill” that will reduce shipments for the 2015 season.
The severity of damage varies widely, though, with some growers saying the crop will be “slightly smaller” and others saying some varieties in some areas will be down 50 percent. Still, decent volume is being predicted for Michigan blueberries starting the second week of July with strong shipments through the end of August and possibly into September.
Michigan apples and vegetables – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
New Jersey Blueberry Shipments
New Jersey blueberry shipments got underway about a week ago and are now moving into good volumes. In 2014, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics service showed New Jersey growers produced more than 57.8 million pounds of blueberries on approximately 8,800 acres. New Jersey currently ranks fifth in national production. Early indications show that New Jersey is on track to match, if not exceed, 2014 totals.
Despite a mayoral pledge to revitalize operations, the nearly two-decade battle to modernize the Hunts Point Terminal Market’s distribution facilities appears no closer to completion.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in early March announced his administration plans to invest $150 million over 12 years to revitalize aging operations. However some Hunts Point wholesalers say the mayor wasn’t specifically talking about the Hunts Point Produce Terminal.
Instead, the mayor’s announcement was neighborhood-specific and was referring to all the food markets on the Hunts Point peninsula, which include the Fulton Fish Market and the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, which is also known as the Hunts Point Meat Market. When one does the math, $150 million over 12 years doesn’t amount to much and isn’t considered remarkable.
The $150 million isn’t anywhere near the $800 million needed to modernize operations, although the city is spending money to improve the market. It is pointed out that a $21 million project constructing railroad sidings alongside the market’s buildings and constructing an open-air rail shed on the market’s east side for freight car unloading is underway.
At the 329-acre facility, 115 wholesalers that employ more than 8,000 workers distribute from the market’s four buildings that were constructed in the late 1960s. Talks to move distributors out of the aging 500,000-square-foot market began in 2000.
Washington produce rates on apples, cherries – grossing about $7400 to New York City.
California’s Westside District, known for its cantaloupe shipments, gets underway this week.
The area gets its name from being located on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Centered around the town of Huron, the melons are starting a week to 10 days earlier than normal.
A number of California produce shipments shipped earlier than ever in 2014 and then broke that record this year. Melons are in a similar situation. The first California melons were shipped out of Brawley in the California desert on April 27. Yuma melons were early as well.
Despite the California drought, melons are still be produced with a key factor being that growers a shifted the location of their acreage to areas that have more water. Some have moved north, while other growers moved west or east or found land with well water when surface water wasn’t going to be available.
Cantaloupes have a short season crop and are considered a low water use crop, plus do well on well water.
The highest volume for Westside District cantaloupes will be from the end of June through the middle of October, if the weather cooperates in September and October.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for fruits and vegetables – grossing about $4900 to Houston, $6100 to Atlanta.
Clamshells, that clear plastic packaging you find in your local supermarket’s produce department has become a mainstay after being introduced a couple of decades ago.
Now, manufacturers of clamshells for strawberries and other fresh produce commodities have been tweaking the dimensions to satisfy both consumer desires and industry concerns.
The one-pounder is the clamshell is most popular, but other sizes, including the two-pounder and four-pounder, are gaining favor. Produce truckers may even notice some new packaging configurations. For example, F-D-S Manufacturing Co. in Pomona, CA, has introduced a two-pound clamshell with three different sizes, each of which allows for an eight-down pallet stacking configuration.
The three sizes of the clamshell and the ability to be packed in a tray that goes eight down on a pallet are equally important. While the outer dimensions of the clamshell remain the same, the inside needs to change a bit to fit different sizes of strawberries. As the season progresses, the average size of a berry changes and the inside dimensions of the clamshell must change to hit the weight advertised. Larger berries tend to be less dense so the clamshell has to be bigger to still get to the two-pound weight. Smaller fruit utilizes the inside space better and less mass is needed to reach two pounds of fruit. The same principle holds true when dealing with one or four-pound clamshells.
The eight down trays allow for better utilization of the cube of a refrigerated big rig trailer. In fact, with an eight down pallet, 30-35 percent more trays can be put in a truck. That is a huge freight advantage. The same freight advantage applies when shipping the empty clamshells to the grower. While this provide a freight advantage for the shipper, is the added weight enough to significantly cut into the what is being paid to the truck?
The four-pound clamshells also fit well in an eight down pallet configuration. Creating a one-pounder that offers that same freight advantage has been difficult.
The clamshell manufacturing industry has evolved over the years, and now virtually all the pellets being used to start the produce industry clamshells process come from recycled soda bottles. Depending upon the quality of the shipment, a small percentage of virgin material may have to be added to reach the quality level needed in the resulting clamshell. But overall, well over 90 percent of the material ultimately used comes from recycled product. And the clamshells themselves are recyclable.
Clamshells took over from plastic baskets in the strawberry industry more than two decades ago and now they account for at least 90 percent of strawberry containers.
n the decades long discussion to move Chicago’s wholesale produce businesses from the South Water Street Market to the current Chicago International Produce Market, one design compromise reached, was to keep the feel of the modern market, with open loading docks.
Chicago produce wholesalers “fought” for years over building a new market. The move finally came in 2002. Ironically, two individuals that were instrumental in making it happen – didn’t even move to the new market. Instead, Peter Testa of Testa Produce Inc., as well as Gene Ruffolo of C. Ruffolo & Sons moved elsewhere in Chicago. Ruffolo, who is located just across the Chicago River from the new Chicago Market is leasing space from one of the nation’s largest produce wholesale distributors, Anthony Marano Co. Marano built his gigantic facility before the new market was even built as he decided not wait on others to make up their minds what to do.
While some wholesalers wanted to keep an old time produce market feel, eventually concerns over food safety prevailed as cold chain considerations grew in the industry. This eventually led to the decision to enclose the front docks.
When the market opened a dozen years ago, the market’s back side was cold chain controlled for receiving produce. Customers loading on the front dock had a high overhang, but it wasn’t enclosed.
This spring the Chicago International Market is completing the addition of rolling doors — similar to large garage doors — to help protect the display dock.
The doors are not insulated to control the cold chain, but they will block blowing blizzards and the cold wind. The doors may have some influence in dock temperatures, but they will certainly cut the wind, wind chill and snow on the dock.
The winter two years ago was the final straw for many in making the decision to invest in the doors.
There are no heaters behind the new doors, but when it is minus 20 degrees, the snow at least will not be blowing across the dock.
Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.