Exp Group LLC, in North Bergen, NJ, is a leading grower, shipper and supplier of tropical products to the New York and surrounding areas. The company’s line is very strong on processed bananas.

“Bananas and plantains are our biggest items,” said Emil Serafino, vice president of the company. “We have numerous ripening rooms and we continue to add new rooms over time.”

The Exp Group uses numerous labels on its wide variety of tropical fruits and vegetables.

Serafino explained that this time of year, the company is very busy with mangos from Haiti, which are sold under several different labels.

It has more than 40 years of experience in production operating and exporting world class fresh products to New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Puerto Rico, Canada and South America. The multinational group is based on several companies, which together create an efficient network of production, exportation and distribution of tropical fruits and vegetables from the Caribbean, South America and Central America.

Serafino said the quality of the company’s products is 100 percent guaranteed because it grows all its products on its own and on grower-partner farms.

“We handle every detail, from growing to the final distribution to our customers, with extreme care,” he said.

Serafino noted that growth in the tropical fruit and vegetable category is spurred by ethnic groups that have immigrated to the United States.

“In the 1930s and 1940s, the majority of immigrants came from Europe,” he said. “But over the past 20 years and still today, the majority of immigrants are Hispanic populations from Central and South America and the Caribbean, which now represents a major part of our population growth.”

When people immigrate to a new country, they bring their food cultures with them. Those recipes and food preferences are then passed down to their children and their children’s’ children.

“Fruits like plantains, bananas, coconuts and mangos, and root vegetables such as yucca, boniato, yellow yam, chayote and malanga are all inclusive in this culture’s list of traditional food staples,” Serafino said.

“Our line of tropical root vegetables stays steady because they are staple items in Latino diets, and this population now makes up about 30 percent of New York City’s residents,” he added.

The company also does a substantial business with avocados. Its green-skinned avocado program out of the Dominican Republic grows continually.

Exp Group’s distribution center is in New Jersey, but the company is headquartered in the Dominican Republic. It also has another headquarter office in San Carlos, Costa Rica, and installations in Santa Cruz, Mexico and in Nicaragua.

“We also handle product from Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala,” said Serafino. “Because of these multiple grower-partner relationships, our line of tropical items is available year-round.”