Debunking Myths About Wholesalers’ Role in the Supply Chain

September 2, 2025 | 5 min to read

Submit release Save for later

In this article:

In the fresh produce supply chain, wholesale distributors like Ben B. Schwartz & Sons serve as vital partners, not mere middlemen. They connect growers with retailers, ensuring timely delivery and quality checks. Wholesalers manage logistics, facilitate shipping across borders, and provide ready-to-go storage, allowing retailers to avoid costly warehousing. By handling these complexities, they empower growers and suppliers to focus on their core strengths, ultimately ensuring that high-quality produce reaches consumers efficiently.

There has been a lot of confusion around the role a wholesale distributor plays in the supply chain, especially when it comes to the fresh produce industry. For a long time, people thought of wholesalers as middlemen, creating an additional, perhaps unnecessary, layer between sourcing and supplying, but the truth is that we play an integral role in many ways. Here’s how:

WE’RE NOT DISTRIBUTORS, WE’RE PARTNERS

Wholesalers aren’t just another link in a chain; we’re an active partner to both growers and suppliers. No matter where a grower is located, either domestically or internationally, we are able to connect them with end customers, such as retailers, to get their product. And for those customers, we help them vet and find the highest-quality product, making sure that it’s delivered on time and to their standards.

Wholesalers aren’t just another link in a chain; we’re an active partner to both growers and suppliers.

As the agent between these parties, we handle all of the logistics, so orders get from point A to point B quickly and safely, and ultimately maintain the vast network both need to stay in business.

WE’RE SHEPHERDS OF QUALITY & DELIVERY

While wholesale distributors make sure that product gets to where it needs to be when it’s expected to be there, we’re also managing far more than people realize. We don’t just source all of the trucking needed to transport produce, but guarantee that the product is serviced in-transit.

We also conduct quality assurance tests when product arrives, ensuring customers are getting the commodities at the standard they expect, and sourcing new product if it doesn’t. It’s a timesaver for customers who need to get fresh produce on shelves or into kitchens without having to worry if they’re delivering the best of the best.

WE MAKE SURE PRODUCT IS READY TO SELL

When fresh produce arrives at a warehouse, it isn’t just processed for inventory and checked for quality. Wholesalers take the important step of making sure that it’s also ready for its final point of purchase.

This can include a number of steps, such as white label packaging, bagging items in specific quantities or mixes and even pre-cutting fruits and vegetables. Wholesalers are key for preparing product so it’s ready as-is in whatever form customers need.

WE NAVIGATE SHIPPING COMPLEXITIES

When it comes to sourcing produce from around the world, it helps to have a partner that knows the back-end work needed to get commodities across international borders.

Wholesalers step in as the experts, easily managing the processes necessary when it comes to imports, exports and tariffs, which is becoming increasingly important in today’s marketplace as we’ve seen policy continually shift between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with rates changing on different items from day to day. This important step goes beyond paperwork, although it’s a critical part of the process, including confirmation of sale documents, safe food licenses and furnishing a bond to appease tariffs, and also means managing site checks if the FDA or USDA wants to hold inspections once product arrives, or if border control requires an inspection before allowing a truck to enter the U.S.

WE’RE READY-TO-GO STORAGE

Unless a retailer or foodservice group is a large, national chain, it’s unlikely that they’ll have their own warehouse to hold product. Buying additional real estate for storage is expensive, and wholesale distributors eliminate the need for it by having that space to house product for as long as customers need before transporting it to their final destination.

Another benefit? This also allows wholesalers to provide volume discounts to smaller- and mid-sized operators by creating value across the portfolio.

WE CAN FLEX OUR INVENTORY

Given long-standing relationships with growers and the ability to house product safely and on-site, wholesale distributors can also be more agile with their inventory and stock up on specific commodities if the market is tightening or there are tariff increases.

By doing this, we also become an indispensable resource for retailers or foodservice groups who may need to access product with little notice. Wholesalers are key in creating accessibility to customers, making sure they never run out of the items that drive their sales. In fact, it’s something that should be baked into the relationship, and any good account representative should be helping customers stay ahead of market shifts.

WE EMPOWER CUSTOMERS TO FOCUS

By taking on all of the above responsibilities, wholesale distributors offer their greatest value by giving both growers and suppliers the freedom to focus on their core competencies. Growers can put their energy into growing the best fruits and vegetables possible, and suppliers can focus on marketing and sales efforts to meet their business goals.

While wholesale distributors may operate “in the middle,” we’re by no means a middleman. We’re an invaluable layer, acting as a partner that takes care of all transportation, storage, packaging and stocking needs, while making the connections that matter for businesses to thrive.

Without wholesalers, these stakeholders wouldn’t be able to do what they do best, and it’d be much more difficult to get the healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables we love from wherever they grow, right to our plates.