Why Chicago-area distributors anticipate a happy holiday season

Chicago-area produce distributors were thankful for a strong Thanksgiving holiday period and anticipate more of the same for Christmas and New Year’s.

“We’re pretty much rolling along,” Mark Pappas, president of Coosemans Chicago Inc., said in late November.

Despite intermittent price spikes on a few items, like hothouse peppers and grape tomatoes, no major shortages occurred, and most commodities were pretty consistent, he said.

Pappas was hopeful this season that companies would reinstate holiday parties that were placed on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That would help the industry in general,” he said.

Business also was “excellent” at Schiller Park, Ill.-based Sun Belle Inc., where founder and CEO Janice Honigberg expected the company to experience significant growth in product offerings and market coverage as a result of its recent acquisition by Frutura, a Reedley, Calif.-based grower and distributor of fresh produce.

“We’re joining as part of their berry group,” she said.

Frutura also acquired Santiago, Chile-based Giddings Fruit, a longtime partner of Sun Belle and year-round supplier of organic and conventional berries from Mexico, Chile and Peru.

Since the acquisition included Giddings’ Cerasus, a large Chilean-based cherry grower and part of Giddings Fruit, Sun Belle now can offer North American markets high-quality Chilean cherries that previously were destined primarily to buyers in Asia, Honigberg said.

Sun Belle is also marketing Ozblu variety blueberries from another Frutura company, Agricola Don Ricardo, a large Peruvian grape, citrus, avocado and blueberry grower.

Besides her role at Sun Belle, Honigberg now serves on Frutura’s board of directors.

“It will be very interesting to learn about the grape, citrus, avocado and cherry businesses as well as berries,” she said.

Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based The Ruby Co. expects to experience “another year of tremendous growth,” especially in the foodservice sector, which accounts for 40% to 50% of the company’s sales, said Josh Wolff, partner and director of growth and strategy.

“It’s a testament of who we are, how we operate, and how we support our customer base,” he said.

The company also supplies retailers, broadliners, distributors, repackers, processors and wholesalers.

Last year, The Ruby Co. had to pass along a lot of significant price increases to its customers, he said.

“This year, given the crop conditions and the freight market, we were excited to provide savings back to our end customers when possible.”

Potatoes and onions are The Ruby Co.’s main commodities, but an added focus has been placed on diversification and expansion into new service offerings and new commodity offerings during the past five or six years, Wolff said.

“As a direct result of best-in-class service and execution, this year we had very impressive customer retention rates,” he said. “We have focused on growing with existing customers while also picking up a lot of new and exciting business for the coming year.”

At Coosemans, Pappas said the U.S. economy is a cause of some concern because of the role specialty items play at a time when some consumers are cutting back on purchases.

“Sometimes [specialties] are the first things people choose to do without,” he said.

But so far, any cutbacks appear to be minimal, he added.

The company’s “really sweet” Green Dragon apples and the Hidden Rose variety with its rose-colored flesh make great holiday gifts, Pappas said.

Other staples at Coosemans include exotic mushrooms, fresh herbs, arugula, Belgian endive, dragon fruit and blood oranges.

Sun Belle will continue to concentrate on a full line of berries as well as pomegranate arils from the U.S. and Peru, some specialty fruits and vegetables and cherries, Honigberg said.

In addition to strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, golden berries and cranberries, Sun Belle will import and distribute Chilean red currants from late December until March.

The company has introduced new labels for a select line of berries that includes a new blackberry variety, a proprietary raspberry variety and jumbo blueberries.

Honigberg is optimistic about the coming season.

“We think we’re going to have a fantastic December, January and February,” she said.

Wolff of The Ruby Co. said he has noticed a drop in freight rates and an increase in truck availability.

“Overall, it’s been a shipper’s market in terms of freight,” he said.

During the pandemic, when demand exceeded supply, asset-based companies expanded their fleets and hired more drivers.

“Increased capacity of trucking and fleets has led to tremendous oversupply of assets on the road, so the supply and demand imbalance has caused freight rates to come way off this year,” Wolff said. “It will be interesting to see what freight does in Q1 of 2024.”