Turning to Hunts Point produce experts in times of crisis

BRONX, N.Y. — “Good morning!” said Stefanie Katzman of S. Katzman Produce at Hunts Point Produce Market as she opened the door on a brisk October day. 

“Welcome to our tomatoes, tropicals, potatoes and onions sales department.”

Just past her, a man wheeled stacks of onion-filled boxes while others called out to each other and wove around holding their order tickets — all of their noses and mouths shielded by masks of different colors and styles.

Nine months after the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the city, filled its morgues and emptied its streets, business looks different yet the same at the wholesale market terminal’s four long warehouses on 112 acres in the Bronx.

More than 30 market tenants do what those like them — often their ancestors — have done for more than 200 years: buy, sell, distribute, deliver and trade expertise about the fresh produce market in the most densely populated city in the U.S.

S. Katzman Produce is one of the market’s larger companies, owned by Stefanie’s father, Stephen Katzman, co-president of the market’s cooperative board with Joel Fierman, president of Fierman Produce Exchange.

“We are just adjusting to a new New York. Restaurant trade is down 40-60% with another wave upon us. Retail has picked up on some volume because people are staying home and cooking more,” Fierman said.

He predicts New York will take five years to recover, if it can.

Tourist trade is gone, hotels are shutting their doors and theaters are closed until next spring, he said. And Christmas and New Year are also on hold, “so all the things that bring people to the most exciting city in the world are closed,” Fierman said. 

The mass exodus of New Yorkers to the surrounding suburbs and states isn’t helping either.

Safety and unpredictability

Attendants at the entrance security gates give masks to truck and car drivers who need them. 

A large sign, “Hunts Point Safety Rules: To all customers, vendors and employees” lists 11 points at the market entrance and exit. 

Hand sanitizer sits on counters throughout the place, and many companies installed plexiglass shields between salespeople and customers. 

In the greater tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the worst months of the pandemic were March and April when it was called the epicenter of the coronavirus. 

Since then, infection rates have steadily dropped to below 1% after some of the country’s strictest quarantine and closing measures emptied restaurants, Broadway theaters, sidewalks and Times Square.

But pockets of rising coronavirus cases are cropping up as “COVID fatigue” settles on the spirits of healthy as well as sick people. Winter approaches, with its traditional holiday gatherings now uncertain and warnings of resurgence.

Some pre-pandemic plans actually helped more than expected.

Before 2020, D’Arrigo New York scheduled facility and food-safety plan updates and upgrades for every few weeks throughout the year.

“We pretty much made all those changes in about five days out of sheer necessity. We went at it hard. We had to,” said Gabriela D’Arrigo, vice president of marketing and communications.

Staffing was an issue in March and early April when the coronavirus was new and reaching its initial peak, Katzman said.

“We were seeing the way customers were struggling just like we were and finding new ways to get the job done,” she said. “We’re not going to cure COVID, but we can make sure we don’t make it worse and keep the food supply going. In Manhattan at any given time, there’s 1½ to 2 days’ worth of food for its people.”

Katzman’s employees get temperature checks before each shift, and they added two additional cleaning crews.

With New York City schools sometimes requiring at-home learning led by working parents, they’ve had to be flexible with employee work schedules, she said.

“We have to roll with the punches. We, thankfully, didn’t have to furlough any employees, but we’re aggressively hiring,” Katzman said. 

“We couldn’t have done what we’ve done without our team, from bottom to top, helping out and making adjustments.”

The biggest focus, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, is how to make workers feel safe, said Michael Armata, berry buyer for E. Armata Fruit & Produce.

His family company also conducts temperature checks before work and installed plexiglass dividers between salespeople and customers, with microphones.

“At one point, it was so bad, you were hearing stories all over the place,” Armata said. 

“For everyone to succeed, everyone’s got to be healthy. If they have a temperature, they go home. Everyone has a family here.”

Coosemans New York also cooperated with the market guidelines and added its own protections, like other companies, such as glass panels between sales booths, requiring masks on customers and barring the touching of displays.

“This office, thank God, we didn’t get hit with the COVID, so we’re lucky with that,” said Alfie Badalamenti, vice president.

Nathel & Nathel didn’t lay off anyone either, said Joshua Gatcke, fruit procurement buyer and son of owner Ira Nathel.

Any employees that got sick were told to go home and take as long as they needed to get better and not worry about losing sick days, he said. And if anyone suspected they had contact with someone with COVID-19, they also were told go home and get tested, Gatcke said.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to get through it, and it’s about keeping the negative impact as low as possible until we get to the other side and then move forward,” he said.

Launched a year ago, Hunts Point Produce Market’s rebranding theme — We know best. We know fresh. We know service. We know variety — has been amplified during this ongoing crisis.

“There is so much more than buying and selling in this business,” Katzman said. 

“We also provide information and service. We talk to so many people in so many locations and growing areas and sales areas. We see patterns, and we put it to good use.”