Page 104 - January_2019

On Thursday during the New York Produce Show and Conference, attendees were treated to a variety of tours to fresh produce markets throughout the region. From the Big Apple to Philadelphia, those who took tours enjoyed a taste of the best fresh products the area has to offer.
NEW JERSEY
Exhibitors, retailers and others attending the New York Produce Show and Confer- ence saw how retailers merchandise produce in New Jersey’s suburbs. The tour took participants to retail operations which cater to their neighborhoods’ clienteles.
At the Newark, NJ, location of Seabra Foods Supermarket, tour participants witnessed how the retailer caters to its neighborhood ethnic customers by marketing Portuguese, Brazilian, Latin American and Spanish foods. “This is a very international avor supermarket,” explains Antonio Seabra, owner. “Here, you will see so many things you won’t see in a tradi- tional supermarket.”
INDUSTRY BUS TOURS
Tour guests chat with owner Antonio Seabra during a visit to Seabra Foods Supermarket in Newark, NJ.
The chain, which also operates stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Florida, employs a buyer at the Hunts Point Terminal Market. The produce aisle features many tropicals and ethnic items, including Portu- guese chestnuts, Frusel-branded go torres ( gs), white turnips, red beans alongside green beans, fryer peppers and selections of overwrapped fresh-cut pumpkin.
“Produce sets the tone of the building,” says Filipe Silva, general manager. “What we have always emphasized is being fresh.”
Asian customers are an important
ingredient for the success of the Morton Williams store in Jersey City. A third of the store’s regular shoppers are similar to the New York chain’s Manhattan customers while about 30 percent each are Indian and Korean, which is different from most other stores, says store manager John Mahr.
“This diverse customer base helps produce in a lot of ways,” he says. Morton Williams’ store managers possess some freedom in ordering. As an independent, depending on neighborhood, the managers can adapt to their customers, says Mahr. The Jersey store sources mostly from wholesalers at the Hunts Point Terminal Market, Four Seasons Produce and other vendors.
“Produce is such a changing thing,” says Mahr. “Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.” Regular iceberg demand “went through the roof” when romaine was not available, he says. “Some customers were squeamish,” says Mahr. “People were all up in arms because they couldn’t get romaine for salads, in prepared salads and sandwiches. People didn’t realize how important romaine was.”
“Retail tours are my highlight every time. ... It’s a good way to share ideas, packaging ideas and marketing concepts.’
— Patricia Brunn, Rewe Group
New Jersey Retail Tour Includes View Of World’s Largest Indoor Farm
BY DOUG OHLEMEIER
During the New Jersey retail tours, participants got a glimpse into modern urban farming by visiting AeroFarms in Newark, NJ, an aeroponic operation that grows a wide variety of leafy greens without soil.
Participants walked through the towering stacks of vertical growing operations, which are 12 levels high. AeroFarms’ production uses 90 percent less water, fewer pesticides and a fraction of the fertilizer typically used in conventional eld growing operations, explained tour host Marc Oshima, chief marketing of cer and co-founder. That results in 390 times more production than normally yielded in elds, he says.
“This is the future of farming,” says
Oshima. “This is more dense growing. With climate change, this type of farming is a way to bring different local production.”
It takes 12 to 14 days to grow baby leafy greens from seed to harvest, compared with the 34 to 40 days required of eld production, says Oshima. The patented cloth growing medium is made from 100 percent-recycled water bottles.
The plant was an abandoned steel
mill. Growing operations produce two million pounds per year of leafy greens, making it the world’s largest producer, says Oshima. Crops are speci cally planted for customers, which include retail stores such as ShopRite, Whole Foods, foodservice purveyors including Compass Group, and
local restaurants. The operation grows more than 700 varieties of products and crops, including berries.
“This is an opportunity working with Newark in jobs and welfare,” says Oshima. “It’s really having an impact.” About 40 percent of the operation’s staff lives in Newark. “We have a real connection with the community,” he says.
AeroFarms operates nine farms, including in the Middle East, northern Europe and China. AeroFarms markets its leafy greens under the Dream Greens label.
NYPS20 JANUARY 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS