Maurice A. Auerbach Inc., the Secaucus, NJ, importer, exporter and distributor, sells a bit to the Southeast, Midwest and Canada, but its main focus is on the Northeast corridor.

“Our strength lies in serving the New York-New England area,” said company President Paul Auerbach.

He quickly added that the firm sells as far south as Atlanta, as far west as Chicago and as far north as Quebec in Canada. “We have good accounts in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Atlanta, all over New York, but that New York up to Boston and New England corridor is in our bread basket.”

The company is often called a wholesaler, but Auerbach said that is a misnomer. “We are a direct importer of specialty items, with garlic and asparagus being out top two items. We sell to wholesalers, foodservice and the retail trade, and we also sell a lot of our garlic to processors. We even supply asparagus to some of the other importers.”

Auerbach said he has been importing asparagus from Mexico since 1986 and added Peru as a source of supply a few years later. “We also have a strong domestic program with California and Washington producers.”

Peru is the main source of supply from about May to January for this year-round asparagus provider. In Peru, the company buys direct from several large grower-packers. Auerbach said his company specializes in the 11-pound carton, handling all sizes “from small to jumbo and everything in between.” The company has a warehouse in Miami and also carries a complete inventory of Peruvian asparagus in its New Jersey warehouse, which allows it to service its Northeast customers in a very timely fashion. “I think that gives us an advantage over our competitors (based in Miami) for our Northeast customers.”

Auerbach does handle white asparagus as well, but the company president said at this point, the firm does not directly import the white product.

He said Peruvian asparagus is well poised for continued U.S. sales growth because it has become “a mainstream produce item with pretty heavy demand. It’s remarkable that it has maintained good demand during this high market period,” he said on July 23, when the f.o.b. market in Miami was well above $30.

He added that the infrastructure in Peru as well as the United States allows this product to move through the pipeline in an orderly fashion, which enhances sales and increases demand. Auerbach is not a big fan of markets that can only move when the price is low. He said asparagus has proven that it has good demand even when the market is a bit higher. He prefers a steady market with some fluctuation in price mirroring the supply-demand situation but not wild swings. “A prolonged low market isn’t good for the production side of the business,” he added.

He said the foodservice industry is a steady buyer of asparagus and has helped fuel the growth of the Peruvian crop.