Frank Dandrea, president of Dandrea Produce Inc. in Vineland, NJ, told The Produce News that the company is essentially consolidating its position in the New Jersey fruit and vegetable market via the use of its own assets.

“Our high-tech facility and packing line, all the way through to our own farms and our grower-partner participation all contribute to us being able to grow more volumes, to consolidate more efficiently and enables us to service half of the United States,” said Dandrea. “We now ship from Texas to Wisconsin and from Maine to Florida.”

Company President Frank Dandrea and Peter Dandrea, who just joined the company the first week in May, in a field of Romaine and red leaf lettuce on May 15, about five days away from harvest. (Photo by Gordon M. Hochberg)Dandrea concurs with other growers that this year’s New Jersey crops are running about 10 days behind last year’s start due to cool and wet late spring weather. That, however, has not affected the quality of the crop in an adverse way.

“In fact, the greens are superior quality because of the cooler nights and warmer days, which are really conducive to them growing well,” he said. “All of the greens are coming on now.”

The company’s line of greens is nearly endless. It includes all of the popular leafy items like endive and green and red lettuces, spinach, collards and every imaginable leafy herb. In all, it handles about 50 greens today. Its own New Jersey acreage, combined with its growing partners in the state, now provides the company with about 1,200 acres in greens alone.

Other items were also underway in mid-May from Swedesboro, further south in New Jersey. Dandrea said that squashes, cucumbers, peppers, corn, eggplant, cabbages, pickle, beans and other items would all be in full swing by about June 15.

“This Jersey crop will carry us through the first frost,” said Dandrea. “We’ll have another crop of greens in late September, which will take us into Thanksgiving.”

In April, Dandrea Produce announced that it had entered into a partnership with strawberry growers Humberto Gonzalez and Rafael Rodrigues in Watsonville, CA, which gives Dandrea a solid presence in the California strawberry deal.

“We’re selling way more than we thought we would,” said Dandrea. “As of Memorial Day we will have sold 40,000 cases. Our original intent with this program was to get acclimated to it, but the grower had additional volumes and we started moving strawberries at an amazing clip.”

Dandrea Produce also has a New Jersey strawberry deal. It is small, but highly valued because of the flavor profile.

“New Jersey strawberries are picked, cooled and shipped out the same day to insure shelf life,” said Dandrea. “These are remarkably good strawberries, and they’re always in high demand. This program will start the last week of May. It’s not huge volumes; maybe three or four thousand cases a week, but it’s a great program because the flavor is second to none.”

Dandrea Produce is always making facility upgrades and in all facets of its business. Besides adding new packing lines in the past year, it has also recently incorporated a quality control system that enables it to handle larger volumes.

“All of our summer items will be packed and monitored by our QC system,” said Dandrea. “This gives us total control over what our customers receive. We have expanded this program over time, and our strategy has proven to be a great success.”

Dandrea Produce is also big in the Jersey blueberry deal. It handles over 600 acres of the fruit, which is known for its outstanding quality and high flavor.

“The business model we have put together for our New Jersey program is highly effective today,” said Dandrea. “We work with growers who produce the highest quality fruits and vegetables. We do the financing to insure that they will plant the seeds that we want that will produce the volumes we need and in the timing we need them in order to meet our customers’ demands.”

Dandrea is joined in overseeing the company’s operation by his brothers, Steven Dandrea, vice president of sales, and Ron Dandrea, secretary-treasurer. Ron Dandrea also heads a large portion of the company’s import sales. In early May, Steven’s son Peter joined the firm. He graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in business management in early May, and headed right to the family business.

Dandrea Produce imports fresh produce from all corners of the world. The company is fully Primus and Good Agriculture Practices certified. It initiated its GS1 Conformance & Certification program in June 2011 and recently initiated its Global SQF 2 certification.

The company is currently concluding the technical side of the paperwork in its new partnership with the Martinavarro Group, a worldwide distributor of citrus fruits headquartered in Spain.

“This partnership will help us to increase our market position and our availability list of citrus in North America,” Dandrea said.