Maurice A. Auerbach Inc., which handles whole and peeled garlic along with a wide assortment of specialty products, relocated late last year into a new warehouse in Secaucus, NJ, that is about twice the size of its previous South Hackensack facility.

Paul AuerbachPeeled garlic is a major product for Auerbach. “Our company is a major factor in the peeled garlic, as well as in the loose garlic,” said President Paul Auerbach in an interview with The Produce News July 26. “We move multiple containers a week on peeled garlic from China, as well as trucks of U.S. peeled garlic.”

The new facility, which has eight times the cold storage capacity as the old one as well as refrigerated docks, “helps us to handle the product a lot better,” Mr. Auerbach said. The inbound containers and truckloads of garlic “all arrive to a refrigerated dock, and that generally sets us [apart] from the competition in the northeast.”

The same is true, of course, for other products for which maintaining a cold chain is important. “We are very heavy in the asparagus and the snow pea business,” he said. “With refrigerated arrivals, the products stay refrigerated” maintaining the cold chain “from beginning to end.”

Most of the company’s competitors in the region “don’t have as good a cold chain,” he said. “It helps us in all our products.”

Auerbach’s overall volume has been increasing, and “one of the biggest areas of increase is our garlic, both peeled and fresh,” Mr. Auerbach said. Over the past season, “we were at a higher pace of selling both the imported and the domestic peeled product than we had been” previously.

The company handles garlic from Mexico and Argentina as well as from California and China. “We are very heavy in the Argentine deal” which is a winter crop, Mr. Auerbach said. That is followed by the Mexican crop in the spring.

Currently, “we have our Baja [Mexico] crop, which looks excellent, one of the nicest looking crops it has been in years,” he said.

“We have just finished our [2011-12] Argentine crop” which “went a li ttle later than usual this year.” Toward the end, “There was very good demand for the larger sizes,” he said. Also, “we’re out of Chinese garlic” from the 2011 crop, and are “now awaiting the new arrivals.

With China’s crop size said to be down this year, with average bulb size also smaller than normal, he expects a greater demand for domestic product over the course of the next year. “I think a lot more demand will be put on the U.S. production,” he said.

“We are not growers,” he said. But “we have some very good partnerships” with producers. “From what I understand, the crop in California is nice” this year. “I think with good quality and good color, it is going to be a good year with garlic and garlic products in general.”

He expects to have “ample supply” of garlic available with good color, quality and size, “so therefore we think we are well-positioned in the marketplace for the coming season.” That should provide “a good entrance into our Argentine deal come next Christmas.”