With the holidays winding down, produce distributors in the Northeast are looking forward to a solid first quarter as the new year approaches.
January is typically a strong sales month for L G S Specialty Sales Ltd., in New Rochelle, N.Y., said President Luke Sears.
It’s common for retailers to conduct promotions for the company’s citrus offerings as consumers forgo their sugary holiday treats and “get back to some of the basics,” he said.
Sears said he expects retailers to take advantage of the healthy-eating trend to try to boost movement in January.
Locally grown products give way to imports during the winter at Vineland, N.J.-based The Freshwave Fruit & Produce, said Chelsea Consalo, executive vice president.
Blueberries are the family-owned company’s biggest item, but the firm also ships products such as wet vegetables, herbs, hard squash and citrus fruits.
The Freshwave ships all items year-round, but during the winter, origins change from the U.S. to Mexico for vegetables and to Morocco for citrus fruits.
Leeks and spinach grown in New Jersey will be the last of the local items for a while, Consalo said. The local program will resume in April. But business has been strong for the holidays, she said.
“We saw a big uptick for Thanksgiving,” Consalo said in mid-December, “and we definitely see an uptick in clementine gift boxes for Christmastime.”
Retailers often request special packaging for grapes for the holidays, such as 2- and 3-pound clamshell packages rather than bags.
“We have the ability to customize sizing and bagging and pack to whatever specs the retailer wants,” Consalo said.
Winter is also the peak sales period for Fave Produce, in Middletown, N.J., said Laurie Siderio, sales manager.
Movement starts heading upward in December, and sales continue strong into the new year on the wave of health-focused New Year’s resolutions that cause many consumers to start eating healthier and adjust their grocery lists accordingly.
The company specializes in ginger and garlic, and is expecting a new crop of ginger in late December, which could be up 10% over last year.
“The quality is looking good, too,” Siderio said.
Moderate weather allowed Vineland-based Flaim Farms Inc. to extend its New Jersey growing season into December this year, said President Ryan Flaim.
Around Thanksgiving, the company usually transitions to Florida, where it grows specialty herbs such as basil, cilantro, dill, mint and parsley during the winter.
Sales typically rise during the holidays, when consumers do more cooking and bring out their traditional family recipes, Flaim said.
After the first of the year, however, sales revert back to a “steady normal,” he said.
Although holiday sales have been good, Sears of L G S Specialties said he hasn’t seen as big an uptick for citruses as he did before they became available year-round.
“By having citrus year-round, it takes a little of the luster off the holiday business,” he said.
Some ethnic groups give citrus fruits as holiday gifts, so there’s still a slight bump, he said. “But it’s not the increases for the holidays that we’ve seen in the past years. Ten or 20 years ago, it was a big deal.”
Still, as anxiety and fear surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be abating, things have started to normalize in the produce industry, said Tom Beaver, director of sales and marketing for Sunny Valley International Inc., in Glassboro, N.J.
But he said it will be interesting to see how consumer fresh produce purchasing preferences may change going forward. For example, there was a move toward grab-and-go convenience packaging before the pandemic, he said, and the trend has only accelerated over the past two years.
“We will be eager to see whether and to what extent these shifts are permanent,” Beaver said.
Not all the industry news is good news this winter, however.
“There is definitely a struggle with labor,” said Consalo of The Freshwave.
“It’s been a challenge,” she said, at all of the company’s facilities, including its farm and warehouse locations.
She said she has seen some improvement recently, but “it’s something that we still need to work on as an industry.”
Logistical challenges are also an issue that produce firms must deal with, said Siderio of Fave Produce.
Trucks can be hard to find, but she still expects on-time or just slightly short deliveries.
Fortunately, Fave Produce has facilities in the East and the West and brings in product through Canada, so most deliveries have been pretty much on schedule, she said.
“But it takes proper planning and strategy to get it here on time.”
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