The Fresh Wave adds two new people to the team
The Fresh Wave adds two new people to the team
VINELAND, NJ — Like everyone else in southern New Jersey, The Fresh Wave is dealing with the hand Mother Nature has dealt: a late start to virtually all produce items, thanks to the long, cold, snowy winter of 2013-14.
“The spring season is almost a month late,” Tom Consalo, vice president of The Fresh Wave, told The Produce News May 6. “You almost lose 30 days, and you can’t make it up.”
Headquartered here in southern New Jersey, The Fresh Wave is a grower, shipper and distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world, but items from its home state are always key. Even with the lateness of this year’s Jersey deal, the company in early May was handling a number of local items, including “radishes, cilantro, some leeks, some spinach, Boston lettuce,” said Consalo. “We’re starting with some swiss chard, dill and dandelion” very shortly, he added.
Looking at how the timing of this year’s deal might play out, he stated, “We’ll have a very short spring, [but] the short spring should be strong. The summer season should be fine. We’ve had some good weather but not overly warm.”
The terrible winter may have set back the harvesting dates this spring, but it apparently has not hurt the quality of the early product.
“The quality’s fantastic,” said Consalo. Bad weather “wiped out many items, so what’s being harvested now is all new crop,” and thus the items are showing “really good quality.”
Consalo also announced two personnel additions to the company, which Skip Consalo launched in 2004.
Anthony Mazzucco joined on April 21 as director of purchasing. Mazzucco, 53, has been in the produce industry since the early 1980s at a number of different companies.
Chelsea Consalo, Skip’s oldest daughter, joined the company May 12 as director of food safety and brand management. Chelsea, 21, earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from High Point University in High Point, NC, with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a minor in finance.
