With opening of a state-of-the-art cold storage facility in the Miami area, Crowley Maritime can boast about two top services it can offer to Peruvian asparagus importers: customs brokering and cooling services.

There is no doubt that the downturn in the economy brought about a similar downturn in the foodservice sector as people stayed home and restaurant sales suffered. The rebound has occurred and the foodservice sector is slowly but surely coming back.

Tony Pinto, procurement coordinator for Harvest Sensations, recently characterized the business for The Produce News. “On the foodservice side I think it’s as steady as it goes; business is not way up or way down.”

Frank Ramos, owner and president of The Perishable Specialists, a customs house broker headquartered in Miami, has been clearing asparagus for a long time so he knows this is the calm before the storm.

“Of course asparagus comes in year-round, but we are in a light period right now just getting ready for the seasonal spike that will come in September,” he said.

Maurice A. Auerbach Inc., the Secaucus, NJ, importer, exporter and distributor, sells a bit to the Southeast, Midwest and Canada, but its main focus is on the Northeast corridor.

“Our strength lies in serving the New York-New England area,” said company President Paul Auerbach.

He quickly added that the firm sells as far south as Atlanta, as far west as Chicago and as far north as Quebec in Canada. “We have good accounts in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Atlanta, all over New York, but that New York up to Boston and New England corridor is in our bread basket.”

As the California table grape industry moves deeper into a season that is expected to produce a record-breaking crop for the second year in a row, with demand so far keeping pace, John O’Rourke, president of RJO Produce Marketing in Fresno, CA, talked to The Produce News about some of the factors driving the industry’s success.

PORT OF WILMINGTON, DE — When the recently completed Chilean fruit season began, no one anticipated the volume of product that would be coming up the Delaware River to the port of Wilmington for handling by Murphy Marine Services, here. What first looked like a normal year turned turbulent, and in late June the company was “still winding down from a pretty hectic season,” said President John Coulahan.