East meets West once again for a collaborative approach to the representation of Peruvian asparagus, among other things.

For the seventh year in a row, Keystone Fruit Marketing Inc. of Greencastle, PA, and Progressive Produce Corp. of Los Angeles, are partnering to offer their customers of Peruvian asparagus boots on the ground on both coasts. Recently Tracy Wood, sales manager for Keystone’s Southern division; Don Hessel, general manager of the Keystone/Progressive asparagus deal; and Gary Meadows, who handles sales, supply management and marketing for Progressive, jointly discussed the arrangement and how it works for both companies — and, more importantly, for their customers.

“We act as partners with regard to both the supply and marketing of fresh asparagus,” said Hessel. “The sales are basically split geographically, but we do what makes sense for our customers. For example, Tracy handles a specific customer we have in Texas out of Miami because it works best for the customer.”

As far as supply goes, Keystone has an office in Peru so its representatives in Peru secure the product, which is air freighted to both Miami and Los Angeles. Most of the asparagus is sold in the “Americas” label, which was developed for this joint collaboration, said Wood, but the trio added that they do sell asparagus with other labels also.

For the 2013 Peruvian asparagus season, no major changes are expected for the two firms. Hessel said total volume from Peru appears as if it will be down in the 5-15 percent range, though he added that the volume will fluctuate throughout the season, but every week will not follow that same pattern or percentage. He added that volume will pick up in September and head toward its peak in October.

Though higher f.o.b. prices in Peru should be expected to accompany the lower volume, Hessel said that better freight rates may offset a little bit of that increase. He expects the vast majority of asparagus from Peru to come by air as the length of the ship ride makes that mode of transportation an unattractive alternative. “We feel air is just a much better option,” he said.

Though the two companies will custom pack according to whatever their customers want, the 11-pound bulk pack is the main offering in the “Americas” label and is what the firms concentrates on. The same is true for green asparagus. White asparagus is offered 52 weeks per year, but green makes up the bulk of the sales.

The trio did compliment the efforts of the Peruvian industry to expand its sales beyond the United States.

Meadows said there are sales opportunities in other areas as Peru has done a good job developing the market for its product in Asia, Australia, South America and Europe. The increased demand from other regions is one of the major reasons why the price of the product is expected to be up this year. It is just basic economics that supplies are down and Peru has increased the demand.