Shipping & Transportation
Levin commented on the high cost of transportation, especially with multiple pickups. He’s seen a trend toward consolidated buying with customers purchasing more items in one place to cut down on rising shipping expenses.
“Freight goes up and down,” points out Penza. “We shop freight on a daily basis to stay competitive.” He admits it can be rather difficult sometimes to cover costs, when freight rates climb. But he takes it in stride, saying simply, “It’s part of the business.”
For John Dohanicz, in buying and sales at G&G Produce, Inc., timing can be more problematic. “We can always get trucks,” he asserts, but many “want to go to the maximum amount of days to get to you—and right at the end, they get it there.” The reverse, he notes, is sometimes true as well, when a truck shows up early when no one was expecting it.
Traceability & Food Safety
Traceability and food safety are not new issues to the produce industry, though the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and its myriad regulations can be complicated depending on who you talk to. For Filindo Colace, vice president of Ryeco LLC, it’s more about preparation, knowing the ins and outs of the various rules and regulations. “It’s not a major challenge, but just from a produce wholesale standpoint, understanding food safety standards and our responsibilities on the PWPM are important.”
Being able to trace back product to a particular lot and grower, of course, will provide peace of mind for vendors, retailers, and consumers. “From a traceability standpoint,” Colace says, Ryeco wants to ensure it can take its business “and our customer’s business to the next level so they can find anything they want. They can trace [product] back to the farm it came from in case of an outbreak.” In the past, depending on the type of produce business, he explains, few businesses had to deal with traceability issues, “but with FSMA, our role is changing.”
Labor Shortages
For Philly’s purveyors of produce, labor is not the same type of challenge as it is for growers out west. Both Colace and Secamiglio say there are plenty of able-bodied workers out there, just few with the necessary skills.
“No labor issues with finding people,” confirms Colonial Produce’s Secamiglio. “The only labor issues we’ve had is finding good help.”
“I get hundreds of applications,” agrees Colace, “but the quality isn’t there. You just don’t see people with produce experience, or produce people looking for jobs. If someone in the industry has a good person, they do what they can to keep them. Finding good labor has been tough.”
