The Perishable Specialist Inc., headquartered in Miami, is a customs broker that is completely dedicated to fruits and vegetables. Ana Ramos, co-owner with her husband Frank, said that a broker that handles fresh produce exclusively serves the importer best because every ounce of effort is concentrated within the produce industry.

“Our company is the epitome of a streamlined process, and we are solely dedicated to fruits and vegetables, which represent 99.9 percent of our day-to-day business,” said Ms. Ramos. “We are more efficient because we are true perishable specialists.”

The company’s efforts are designed and arranged to work for its fruit and vegetable importers. Its attention is never focused elsewhere because produce is all it does.

“We made a decision a little over 10 years ago to become effectively organized and commit our company and ourselves to serving the needs of fruits and vegetable importers,” said Ms. Ramos. “As with everything in life, relationships are paramount in importance, and the produce industry is no exception. Our staff has the ability to effectively communicate and engage the numerous government agencies that oversee the importation of fruits and vegetables into the United States.

She explained that Customs & Border Protection is the big brother and enforcer of rules and regulations as well as the issuer and collector of monetary penalties. Agriculture Quarantine Inspection is associated with the agriculture inspections done at the first port of arrival. Agriculture is a department within CBP. The U.S. Department of Agriculture intercepts insects and is responsible for the identification of actionable and non-actionable pests. Treatment of actionable pests falls under the responsibility of USDA. The Food & Drug Administration governs pesticide or microbiological findings in produce. The FDA randomly samples imports into the United States for the presence of either an illegal pesticide or the presence of dangerous pathogens.

Ms. Ramos said that the company is not an ocean shipping company, nor a trucking company, “And we are not a cold-storage facility. However, we have excellent relationships with the most efficient carriers for both land and ocean, as well as some modern and efficient cold storage facilities. We are able to coordinate on behalf of our importers and be a bridge for them and their logistical needs.”

People wanting to import a perishable item for the first time, “should contact a customs broker,” Ms. Ramos advises. “I always advise new importers of what the most basic permits are that we must ask for, which is a good starting point in setting them on an educational path. They should ask questions until there is total clarity about the process, which will also help them to streamline it as much as possible. Prior to sending a fresh fruit or vegetable by plane or shipping that first container load, it is imperative that all permits are filed, registrations submitted and that admissibility is confirmed.”

The Perishable Specialist also coordinates the fumigation of commodities on a daily basis. This is called for when there are items that require fumigation as a condition of entry into the United States, or because an actionable pest has been intercepted.

“We are involved in fumigation procedures for commodities arriving into east and west coast ports by air and ocean container,” said Ms. Ramos.

“We are a remote location filer,” she continued. “This allows us to file entry at all ports in the U.S. We have an extensive peer-to-peer network, which provides legs at all major ports of the U.S. should the need for physical representation be necessary in cases where we are not present.”

Because The Perishable Specialist’s personnel is dedicated to the produce industry, its process is geared toward getting customers’ ocean containers or air arrivals of fresh fruit and vegetables cleared and to warehouses in what Ms. Ramos said is in “lickety-split” timing so customers can concentrate on what they do best: selling fresh produce.