Shippers work through pandemic
Produce shippers in the Northeast had to tweak their operations a bit over the past couple of years to cope with COVID-19, but most have gotten through the pandemic in fairly good shape.
Operations continued pretty much as usual during COVID-19 at Vineland, N.J.,-based The Freshwave Fruit & Produce and its growing operation, Consalo Family Farms, said Chelsea Consalo, executive vice president.
“Because we’re also a grower, we never stopped during COVID,” she said.
“We had to continue our operations in order to grow, pack and ship, and get all of our produce out to retailers.”
No one at The Freshwave got to work from home during the pandemic, she said. “We just had to adapt to new procedures.”
Nearby, in Glassboro, N.J., Sunny Valley International Inc. also continued operations without interruption, said Tom Beaver, director of sales and marketing.
“Our primary customer base are grocery retailers, so we did not experience the same consequences as shippers working primarily with foodservice customers,” he said.
Employees worked remotely for a month or two, Beaver said, “but our domestic South Carolina and New Jersey fruit programs are such that we needed to be on-site pretty much right away.”
The company put COVID-19 protections in place that ranged from making personal protective equipment readily available to all employees to retrofitting office space to minimize the risk of transmission, Beaver said.
The biggest burden during the past couple of years for Philadelphia-based Ryeco LLC was caused by government policies, not the pandemic, said Filindo Colace, vice president of operations.
The government instituted unemployment benefit extensions and then threw in an extra $300, which was a disincentive for some people to work, he said.
“As a result, we didn’t see people walking in looking for jobs.”
The workforce is still about 10 million short of what it was pre-COVID-19, he said. “That’s hurting.”
Also, a lot of people now want to work from home.
“That hurts our ability to transport product across the country, as well as getting people in here physically to work,” Colace said.
Tracie Levin, controller for Philadelphia-based M. Levin and Co., saw a stark difference between 2020 and 2021.
“Retailers were coming out of the woodwork (in 2020), buying everything they could find,” she said.
“You couldn’t get (product) to supermarkets fast enough to keep them stocked.”
This year, business has slowed down, she said, and supermarkets are able to keep their shelves stocked with fresh produce, though some other items remain in short supply.
“It’s been a really strange couple of years businesswise,” she said.
The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market reduced its hours during the height of the pandemic and implemented safety protocols, she said.
She is not aware of any deaths or serious complications from COVID-19 on the market.
“It makes me think we were doing something right.”
Ryan Flaim, president of Vineland-based Flaim Farms Inc., saw firsthand how devastating COVID-19 can be.
His uncle suffered some serious effects from the virus and had to be placed on a ventilator.
“We know the reality of how bad it can hit you,” Flaim said.
Everyone wore masks at Flaim Farms, and the company offered, but did not demand, COVID-19 vaccinations.
Joel Fierman, president of Joseph Fierman and Sons Inc. in New York, considers his company fortunate.
“We had very few occurrences (of COVID-19),” he said. “We didn’t lay anybody off during the height of the pandemic. We kept people working.”
Up to 40% of the firm’s business is in foodservice, and with restaurants, museums and hotels shut down or on reduced hours, the company felt some impact.
Some restaurants didn’t pay outstanding balances after they closed their doors, he said.
Citrus sales spiked during the summer of 2020 at L G S Specialty Sales Ltd., in New Rochelle, N.Y., said President Luke Sears.
Clementines always sell well in the summer, Sears said. However, he also saw a big uptick in navel orders in the summer of 2020 as consumers clamored for a dose of vitamin C to try to ward off COVID-19, he said.
Sales were down slightly in the summer of 2021, but not to 2019 numbers.
“We sustained some of those gains that we had gotten in 2020,” Sears said.
He also saw a shift in avocado business from foodservice to retail during the pandemic, when restaurant sales were down.
“Retailers were probably making up a lot of that foodservice business on avocados,” he said.
During the first part of the pandemic, retailers asked for different items, or more or less of certain products, said Consalo of The Freshwave.
“That only lasted for six months, then everything went back to normal.”
Since 97% of The Freshwave’s business is with retailers, the company did not suffer a loss in sales when restaurants and foodservice operations shut down or reduced their hours, Consalo said.
A number of retailers were struggling because of government food box programs that provided consumers with free food with no proof that they were actually needy, Fierman said.
“I think everybody that’s hungry should eat, but I don’t think (that programs for the needy) should be taken advantage of,” Fierman said.
At Flaim Farms, sales results were positive during the pandemic, Flaim said.
“We were lucky enough to see an increase overall,” he said.
Foodservice business was down, but retail sales doubled.
As of mid-December, foodservice business was back to about 80% of normal, he said.
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