Maurice Auerbach enjoys rich history with Hunts Point merchants

With its headquarters situated in Secaucus, NJ, less than 20 miles from the Hunts Point Market, third-generation family-owned Maurice Auerbach Inc. enjoys decades of great relationships with many on the market.

“We have several customers at the market that we deal with on a daily basis,” said Bruce Klein, director of marketing for the company. “The Hunts Point Market is an avenue for us to get to the people we need, and the accounts on the market are very important to us as we have several large customers.”

Being the largest garlic and specialty produce distributor in the Northeast, Maurice Auerbach Inc., offers a product line of produce items sourced from around the world, and its products are highly in demand by Hunts Point vendors.

Under its AuerPak brand name, Maurice Auerbach Inc. specializes in garlic, shallots and other specialty items, such as tropical and Asian produce, plus it deals in organic garlic, asparagus, ginger, and tofu as well.

“We sell these to the market and then it gets distributed throughout the Northeast from the market to retail and foodservice accounts that we’re not servicing,” Klein said. “But we can expand who we service through our accounts on the market.”

Early in 2022, asparagus has been showing higher than normal sales because it’s been a rather tight market. Additionally, Klein noted ginger is very tight, as is bulk garlic.

“What’s trending varies on the item depending on the time of year,” Klein said. “For instance, shallots were very popular for a while at the end of last year.”

There’s no denying that the pandemic has impacted just about every facet of the produce industry over the past two years, and Maurice Auerbach Inc. considered the unknowns when devising its strategy for 2022.

“We always strive to make sure we take care of our existing customers to the best of our ability,” Klein said. “Our core customers are the heart of our business. And we consider the Hunts Point Market part of our core customers.”

The company continues to follow CDC guidelines and pays attention to any changes to ensure it’s doing its best to keep staff healthy and safe.

“We’re hoping this year is better than last year, and the pandemic becomes a lot less threatening to people and they feel free to gather and go out to restaurants,” Klein said. “It’s been a difficult time and we don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

With all the out-of-stocks happening around the industry, the company works very hard to have very few, and works hard to serve all of its customers’ needs.

Maurice Auerbach Inc. considers itself reactive to the needs of its customers. Being about 30 minutes from Hunts Point helps in that regard.

“Most of our customers are less than a day away, and we can deliver by next day, and pride ourselves on that turnaround,” Klein said. “We do a lot of special packs for customers. We’re a company that reacts to our customers’ needs. We’re fairly-priced, are a certified organic packer and have a lot of the attributes those in retail and foodservice are looking for.”