Ryeco adds warehouse
Ryeco LLC, based on the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, has just leased a 60,000-square-foot warehouse in Swedesboro, N.J., to support its Philadelphia operation, said Filindo Colace, vice president of operations.
The new facility will be used for storage and for bagging some of its own products — like apples, lemons, oranges, clementines and onions.
“We’re in the process of refrigerating it and building production lines,” Colace said.
Ryeco also recently implemented a warehouse management system, where employees wear minicomputers on their wrists and scanners on their fingers that can sync with the computers.
“We are going paperless on the picking operation,” Colace said.
Market replaces condensers
The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market replaced all of its condensers this year to enhance its refrigeration systems, said Christine Hofmann, market coordinator.
“We also modernized and updated the lighting in the parking areas,” she said.
The market is looking into installing solar panels to reduce utility costs as well.
“We’ll have to weigh out the costs and benefits to see if it will work for us in 2025,” she said.
And the market continues to partner with Sharing Excess, a nonprofit that collects excess produce to feed people who are food insecure and diverts “massive amounts of food bound for the landfill,” Hofmann said.
John Vena adds ripening tools
John Vena Inc. on the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market has leased some new equipment that effectively doubled its capacity for preconditioning avocados, plantains and mangoes, said John Vena, president.
The company has been ripening those items for years, he said. But the program grew so much that it put a strain on the firm’s capacity.
The firm also was scheduled to receive Israeli pomegranates and Kaki persimmons from Spain in mid-December and will have Peruvian pomegranates in February, Vena said.
