Krichmar Produce Co. making some upgrades to its facility
Krichmar Produce Co. making some upgrades to its facility
VINELAND, NJ — Krichmar Produce Co. is making some new upgrades to its facility, here, all designed to better maintain temperature control of the products it handles and ships to its customers — primarily retailers and wholesalers located up and down the East Coast, from Florida to Massachusetts.
The company “will be installing two speed doors to the entrance to the coolers to keep the cold chain more updated,” company President Jay Krichmar told The Produce News Tuesday afternoon, May 12.
At Krichmar Produce Co. in mid-May with fresh New Jersey cilantro were: (standing) TyroneEllis, Jay Krichmar, Jerry Mongelluzzo and Troy Krichmar; (kneeling) Medio Bassetti, Moises Lozano, Antwoin Brown and Victor Najera. (Photo by Gordon M. Hochberg)He expected those speed doors to be installed by around June 1.
Also, “All of the loading-dock doors for outside freight will be sealed to better maintain temperature control. This is going on now and should be completed by around May 21.”
In addition, the company recently updated its fleet of eight trucks by replacing four older tractor-trailers with four new ones.
On the issue of food safety, Krichmar added, “food-safety audits have become a daily routine here. It’s become a routine practice with the employees to maintain Good Agricultural Practices to keep up with food safety.”
Asked about the upcoming New Jersey spring vegetable season, Krichmar, who founded the company here in southern New Jersey 20 years ago, replied, “Obviously the season was late” due to the very cold winter and early spring. “The season was about three weeks to a month later than normal due to the cold winter. The ground was frozen, and growers couldn’t get in to plant.”
The cold winter and late start did not affect quality, however. In fact, “It didn’t affect the quality at all,” he said. “Product-wise, Jersey growers do the best job in the country. And we’re seeing that in the early spring deal.” And, he added, “Prices have been very positive for the grower.”
Referring to the hot weather on the day of this interview (May 12) and just prior, Krichmar declared, “We’re having a mini-heat wave the last few days, which is bringing product on quickly. And there’s been very little rain this spring.”
