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TORONTO MARKET PROFILE
of locally grown fruit and vegetables,” he says. “It’s a great central location for buyers. Without the terminal in its current loca- tion, we wouldn’t have the food distribution network we now have in place.”
HAPPY BUYERS
Buyers like Tony Gabriele from Coppa’s Fresh Market, a four-store supermarket chain in the Toronto area, appreciate the conve- nience. He can find the popular produce items he needs and get the best deals to pass on to his customers.
Gabriele scans the selection to see what he can bring to customers at Coppa’s locations in Toronto. For independent retailers, buying from the terminal “gives us the competitive edge and puts us on a level playing field with the bigger chains,” says Gabriele. “We can play the vendors against each other and get better deals. It’s a one-stop shop, with everything from A to Z. I buy 98 percent of our produce from the terminal. I do very little business off-market.”
The OF T made recent upgrades, improve- ments and extensions to the facility included adding 35 new buyer loading docks and additional receiving/shipping space for cold storage. “It has increased efficiency, and now
J.E. Russell Ltd.: Hutch Morton, Duarte Nunes and Rui Nunes
Stronach & Sons Inc.: Raymond Bonnell, Scott Lopez, Adriana Siordia and Danny Simone
84 / MARCH 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
the buyers can load the trucks themselves, and there’s more space,” says Bamford.
Today, there are 21 produce companies at the terminal, along the busy Queensway in the Etobicoke area, in West Toronto. “We all used to be known for one product, but now we are increasing the number of varieties and quantities,” says Tony Fallico of FG Lister. “If we all carry the same things, it gets redun- dant.” Now, FG Lister sells grapes from Chile
and all over the world, organics and bagged citrus, and fresh-cut produce for the foodser- vice industry.
Fallico’s oldest son, Michael, 35, is in the business too. “It’s a tough business,” says Fallico, who got his start in produce at age 14, working at the Terminal’s farmers’ market. “You have to marry the right person. We have long hours; we start at 3 a.m. and work all day, seven days a week.”