Chicago’s Panama Banana enjoying flourishing business
CHICAGO — Serving fresh produce to Chicago schools was an important motivator for Panama Banana, located on the Chicago International Produce Market, to receive its USDA-GAP food-safety certification.
Tom Durante, a salesman and buyer for Panama Banana, said, “Because I deal with the school systems, we had to be certified.” The USDA certification “is required of us here.”
Strube focuses on new management plan over centennial anniversary
CHICAGO — Life should always enjoy such symmetry.
This September, as Strube Celery & Vegetable Co. celebrates its centennial anniversary, the firm is also aggressively moving toward the future under fourth-generation leadership.
Lisa Strube, the director of finance and administration, said the firm’s new motto is “Over 100 years old and still fresh.”
Anthony Marano Co. extends tomato-packing services
CHICAGO — In early August, Anthony Marano Co. applied established apple-grading technology to its tomato business.
In an Aug. 20 warehouse walk, Anton J. Marano, vice president of operations and the son of company owner Anton T. Marano, showed The Produce News two shiny-new tomato-grading lines that had only been in use for two weeks.
The Compac-brand lines provide a number of efficiencies, Marano said.
Retail sales gaining at Mandolini
CHICAGO — The sales mix for Mandolini Co. on the Chicago International Market has somewhat shifted toward retail in the last couple of years, according to Greg Mandolini, who owns the firm.
The mix of retail and foodservice was previously about even, but it shifted as consumers moved to “more home entertaining” as opposed to going out to eat. Thus retail customers now buy about 60 percent of Mandolini sales.
“This affects our product mix and changes how you approach things,” Mandolini noted.
Chicago part of Infinite Herbs’ logistics network
CHICAGO — The Miami headquarters of Infinite Herbs & Specialties is the firm’s key distribution point. It also has food-safe refrigerated warehouses in Chicago and Everett, MA.
Camilo Peñalosa, a partner in the company, noted that transportation efficiencies are critically important, especially when shipping light-density items like herbs.
Therefore, he indicated that sales along the long transportation corridors from Miami toward Chicago and the Boston area are very important. Of course sales surrounding those regional hubs are also critical to his company’s success.
Serck leads with food-safety efforts
CHICAGO — Food-safety assurance procedures are important to Steve Serck, a leading wholesaler on the Chicago International Produce Market and a board member of the Wholesaler-Distributor Board of the United Fresh Produce Association. At the market, Serck is president of JAB Produce, Jack Keller Co. and SAS Cartage LLC and acts as treasurer on the Chicago International Market Board of Directors.
Food-safety measures “are not a requirement yet by anybody,” he said. “But if someone gets sick” from food coming from the terminal market “it will hurt everybody.”
Muller Trading Co. Inc. in an aggressive growth mode
LIBERTYVILLE, IL — Success for a produce brokerage such as Muller Trading Co. Inc., “is all about providing more value,” according to Eric Muller, who started the company here in 2000. “It’s all about maintaining relationships and service. We have to provide service from start to finish.”
Transportation accounts for a broker’s problems “nine out of 10 times,” he said. His firm has been in business long enough to be associated with good trucking resources. Still, problems do arise. Then, “you do all you can to rectify the problem and you find ways to make the customer happy.”
Former Texas Vegetable Association president dies
David R. Peterson, a past president of the Texas Vegetable Association and a founding partner in Red Starr and Tex Starr Distributing of Alamo, TX, died while out of the country Sept. 7.
Texas Food Bank Network distributed 100 million pounds of produce to those in need in 12 months
According to the dictionary, the word “imagine” means to “form a mental picture.” But it’s hard to imagine something you’ve never witnessed or experienced, like a child going hungry. Yet, for the one in five households in Texas, that struggle to afford enough food is a scary reality.
Sunburst Farms and Bernie Thiel earn 2013 Texas Vegetable Association Award of Merit
Anyone who knows Bernie Thiel knows he was born to farm. Anyone who doesn’t found out in August when Thiel and his Sunburst Farms near Lubbock, TX, were honored with the 2013 Texas Vegetable Association Award of Merit at the Texas Produce Convention in San Antonio.
Thiel typically attends the Texas Produce Convention alone. This year his entire family was on hand for the festivities. It was fortuitous timing.
“I could not ask for more,” Thiel said. “To have my whole family here is reward enough, but to be recognized by my peers is just really special.”