“We have a great group of highly talented people here, and they keep their finger pressed tightly on the pulse of what’s going on when it comes to supplies,” Mike Badalament, sales associate for Ram Produce Distributors LLC, located at the Detroit Terminal Market, told The Produce News in mid-January. “When there are problems in Florida, California or any other areas we source from, we’re fully in the know and take the necessary steps to insure that we have high-quality product for our customers.”

Ram Produce considers itself an expert in the tomato category, and it indeed does handle every imaginable variety, shape, size and color and from every growing region that it can reach. But the company also has a broad knowledge and expertise in many other produce categories.

“When you look at the Detroit Market, you sort of categorize every company with its particular niche,” explained Badalament. “One company may do an extraordinary job in grapes, for example, but it also handles a lot of other products. Because we are highly versed and carry many tomato varieties, including specialties, we’re known as tomato experts. But then we branch off into peppers and many other products.”

He added that Ram Produce’s number one focus is on quality, followed by price. He said that the produce industry is humbling in that you have to work very hard to stay within a range of good produce from the best possible vendors while at the same time getting your customers the best possible price and providing them with unsurpassed service.

The Polar Vortex that swept across the country in early January wreaked a bit of havoc on the produce business, but Badalament said people got through it the best way possible.

“Monday of the storm was a really tough driving day, but on Tuesday the temperature dropped to 15 below zero, not including the wind chill factor,” he said. “A lot of people stayed home, but not before they wiped out the grocery stores. You couldn’t even find a grocery basket to put your food in in some stores, and the lines were really long. Most of our administrative staff stayed at home, which is where we preferred they be rather than them trying to take to the bad roads.”

Ram Produce also handles zucchini and other vegetables, and it has strawberry and kiwifruit programs. Its line also includes some Hispanic items, and it’s strong in onions and gourmet vegetables, including dried porcini mushrooms, Belgium endive, radicchio, peeled garlic, ginger and a full line of leafy items. It also handles peapods, asparagus and squashes.

The company has been on the terminal market since 1987. Its customers are major wholesalers, independent and major chain retailers and the category that encompasses farm markets, fruit stands and gourmet stores. It distributes in Detroit and outlying Michigan cities, as well as in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Its products are also sold in Canada.

Ram Produce is a highly progressive, but down-to-earth company whose staff combines to result in a tremendous amount of buying and selling experience.

“Even the young people who work here were raised in this business,” said Badalament. “I remember when our owner, Mike Bommarito, used to come into the office as a young child, hanging onto his dad’s pant-leg. And like the majority of people in Detroit, he is very much a down-to-earth great guy whose door is always open.”

The company is also highly progressive. Three years ago it added about 10,000 square feet to its terminal operation. Last year it renovated its packing lines at its corporate office, located about a mile from the terminal market.

“This is work in progress,” said Badalament. “We’re constantly working on and improving our operation. We are HACCP approved with an excellent rating, which we are very proud of.”

Ram Produce, he stressed, is always doing something to move forward.

“We are now operating from an entirely new computer system which has increased our efficiencies considerably,” said Badalament.

“The system blends itself with all of the requirements that are needed today, such as country of origin. And we can expand on the new software program at any time that we feel the need.”