BENTON HARBOR, MI — Arkansas tomatoes weren’t ready to ship and so Gary Margolis, president of Gem Tomato and Vegetable Sales Inc., based in Boca Raton, FL, and with sales offices in Arkansas, took the chance for very early preseason preparation in Michigan.

Here in lush, spring-green rolling countryside, Margolis has a refuge from the travel and pressures of a 12-month fresh tomato deal.

On an overcast, damp and chilly mid-May afternoon, he talked in the dimly-lit living room of a house he purchased 18 years ago and remodeled to comfortably duplicate the feel of 1865, when the home was built.  

The 80-acre property’s original deed is addressed to the settler Samuel Spinx, from the United States of America.

Gary Margolis stands before a barn originally built in 1865. Margolis, who owns Gem Tomato and Vegetable Sales, Inc., bought this property 18 years ago. He has totally refurbished the farmhouse and barn, which had almost fallen to ruins. The United States government possessed the land in succession to the Pottawatomi tribe. Outside is a red barn, revitalized by Margolis, that was also constructed in 1865.

To discuss the tomato business with The Produce News, Margolis sat in a comfortable chair in his spotless, peaceful living room.

Gem markets tomatoes for its grower-partners. For 30 years, Margolis has followed the tomato deal through Florida to Kentucky, Arkansas and Michigan.

“My kids were raised to follow the tomato deal up,” until they were old enough for school, he said.

Over the decades, Margolis has seen a decline in the number of Florida tomato growers, “a great increase in the volume of Mexican tomato imports and an exponential increase in greenhouse production.”

His tomato niche has become a specialty deal in the summer and wintertime. “Specialty” is redefined because of the demand for local and regional tomatoes. Margolis now defines specialty tomatoes as those grown in commercial volumes in open fields, exposed to the weather.

“I enjoy the position we are in, which is bucking a trend,” he said. Margolis promoted vine-ripe tomatoes “when the industry was almost exclusively mature greens.”

He works with the sons and grandsons of his original grower-suppliers. Delivering fresh market tomatoes “to retailers is way more complex than consumers and buyers can imagine,” he said. “Especially with ‘local’ overlapping the seasons. With all the challenges, not all growers can deliver fresh market tomatoes. All growers are not created equally. We have food-safety demands and traceability requirements and, now, sustainability issues and labor shortages. It’s too much for many growers to handle. The survivors are efficient, strong and committed.”

At his marketing end, “I have tried to be transparent. I want the growers’ faces out front and have customers know more growers and their families. We promote the small family farm.” Margolis’ growers do what they do best — grow tomatoes — and leave the marketing to Gem.

Margolis’ growers comply with GFSI food-safety standards. “You either do it or get out of the business.”

Arkansas tomato growers endured a spring like that of much of the rest of the United States — wet and cold. “It was challenging weather,” said Margolis on May 13. “But today, things are going very well. It’s an excellent quality crop.” The Arkansas harvest is to begin about June 15, “which is a little later than it has been, but it’s a normal crop.” He added that some years, “We have started May 31.”

Marholis considers Arkansas “the first true vine-ripe deal of the summer because we start close to the first of the summer. Multi-generations in one area are committed to vine-ripe production. A lot of retailers are anxious to start.”

In Milo, located in southeast Arkansas, Gem represents Triple M Farm, which is a partnership of the Moffatt and Meeks families. These Ashley County families have long been friends and in recent years allied to build a modern packinghouse and shipping facility. “They are committed to sustainability and they are very, very successful growers.”

Gem keeps sales offices in Hamburg and Hermitage, AR, to handle sales for the Arkansas deal.

These growers have for years acquired their Mexican labor force through an H2A program. This “has gone very, very well,” Margolis said. “For reasons that are unclear to me, they are not as successful in Michigan” in acquiring H2A labor. Triple M Farm “has invested in comfortable housing” for its workers and is thriving within the system.

Michigan tomato production also had a late start and harvest won’t begin until mid-August, Margolis added. Warm summer weather could bring an earlier Michigan tomato harvest date.

Margolis said his Michigan growers are also “rock solid.”

“There is a younger generation coming up,” he said. “They comply with food-safety and traceability rules. They are very worried about labor supplies. I hope they have adequate labor. That makes it very scary.”

As drizzle fell in mid-May, the Michigan growers were preparing to transplant tomato seedlings from greenhouses onto plastic in the fields.