Hunts Point Produce Market: The engine that fuels New Yorkers with fresh produce

There are more than 20 million reasons why Hunts Point Produce Market is important — better yet, essential — to the lives of New Yorkers and those living in the surrounding 50-mile tri-state area, including New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

Maybe it’s ensuring there are Cortland apples at a suburban retailer so Grandma can make her
homemade apple pie. Or plantains at the corner street bodega so families can walk to get this meal staple. Or fresh basil for the mom-and-pop pizzeria to top their signature Margherita pie. Or daikon for the downtown food truck’s daily soup.

“Our customers are what makes the Hunts Point Produce Market so special,” says Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president of S. Katzman Produce, a business started by her great-grandfather, who sold produce by horse and wagon in the early 1900s. “In New York City, we have one of the world’s largest, most diverse populations. And our service is integral: feeding people with fruits and vegetables that are nutritious and fueling, but also a taste of home, family, and values for many.”

Every day, 365 days a year, Hunts Point Produce Market receives 600 to 800 tractor-trailer loads of fresh fruits and vegetables sourced from 49 states and 55 countries by truck, train, boat, and plane. After maneuvering large volumes of almost every variety of fruit or vegetable under the sun, the market’s 27 wholesalers/distributors send it back out to retail and foodservice buyers in the city and surrounding suburbs. That’s a total population of 20-plus million consumers taking advantage of the economies of scale provided by the market. The market supplies some 60% of the city’s needs, worth $2 billion.

This includes its bread-and-butter customers, the mom-and-pop stores and small independents, 2,500 green-grocers, and 23,000 restaurants in the city’s five boroughs. Pulling off this super-sized supply feat takes over 1,500 employees.

“The market never closes. It can’t, or the city will run out of produce. It is a perishable commodity. We
didn’t even close — not even one day — all through the COVID pandemic. That is something we are all proud of. It shows the level of dedication that is here at the market to serve our customers,” says Joel Fierman, president of Fierman Produce Exchange, Inc., who remembers as a kid running around Washington Street on Manhattan’s lower west side before his family wholesale business, founded in 1948, moved to Hunts Point in 1967.

SHEER SCALE

The Hunts Point Produce Market is located on 113 acres of South Bronx land on the Hunts Point peninsula. Twenty-seven merchants operate here in 1-million-plus square feet of space configured in four main rows.

“The Hunts Point Market is important because we are a cornerstone of North America’s supply chain infrastructure. We are the world’s largest wholesale produce market by size and volume. We work to ensure the efficient distribution of fresh produce throughout the Northeast and greater U.S. We aren’t just a marketplace; ‘the market’ is a vital link in the chain that keeps our food supply robust and accessible,” says Dan Barabino, vice president of strategy and operations for Top Banana, LLC, who credits his industry tutelage to his father-in-law, Joe Palumbo, who started the company in 1996.

The logistic coordination of how this gets accomplished might seem daunting to the faint-of-heart, but it’s all in a day’s work for the multi-generational wholesale houses.

“It’s the sheer physicality, the mechanics of distributing such a large amount of produce, which makes Hunts Point special,” says Matthew D’Arrigo, chief executive officer and owner of D’Arrigo Bros. Co. of New York, Inc., a company his father started in 1948. “[The market] is a logistical engine that manages hundreds of loads a day, both domestic and imported produce, to a tremendously diverse customer base. What makes the New York Metro market unique is the sheer number of independents, small retailers, and foodservice distributors not seen in other cities. We are their supply source and warehouse. We help them succeed.”

When the market opened in 1967, 130 merchants worked at 100% capacity. Sixty years later, 27 merchants operate at 120% capacity, says Fierman Produce Exchange’s Fierman. “There has been no loss of volume or generational business. What happened was that all the houses used to be specialists. Later generations expanded into new spaces and diversified their product lines, and many houses now carry similar items. That’s what makes price and quality important, especially in these difficult days of inflation. The market operates on true supply and demand.”

When farmers have a surplus after filling their large chain contracts, they head to Hunts Point Market, says Cary Rubin, vice president of Rubin Bros. Produce Corp., founded over 75 years ago. “We provide a place where they can offload products and get a decent return. In turn, our customers can buy the product and pay a competitive price. The diversity of our customer base means there is an opportunity to sell everything from premium to slightly distressed, but safe and edible, products. That helps keep food prices reasonable in the tri-state area.”

Rubin adds, “Frequently, large corporations think their buyers aren’t doing their jobs if they buy wholesale. I disagree. If they combine wholesale with direct purchasing, it will help them do better in business overall and be more profitable.”

A-Z VARIETY

Nearly 40% of New York City’s 8 million population are foreign-born, which creates a demand for a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

“When it comes to produce, our customers want everything, and they want it now. That’s what makes our job so fun. We source locally when we can, and from as far away as we need to, to get our customers exactly what they are looking for year-round,” says S. Katzman Produce’s Katzman.

“The variety of fruits and vegetables available through the Hunts Point Produce Market is as impressive as the volume,” adds Michael Armata, berries and specialties team leader for E. Armata, Inc., started in the late 1800s by family patriarch Erasmo, who first sold lemons from a burlap bag on the streets in Manhattan.

“We have every type of tomato — 5×6, 6×6, plum, grape, cherry, stem, beef, cocktail, medleys — you name it. It is the same with apples and every other type of produce. This means that we always have something else to sell when one variety is short. Plus, that alternative may better fit the customers’ needs and even be cheaper.”

Armata adds, “Not as many customers walk the market as they once did. Instead, they want convenience of delivery. That makes us their eyes and ears. They trust us when we say fruit is as sweet as sugar. It takes a dedicated, well-educated sales and quality control team to gain this trust.”

PAST TO PRESENT

The market is a collection of merchants with expert industry knowledge who, over decades and generations, have honed the craft of sourcing, handling, and, in some cases, processing, ripening and repacking fresh fruits and vegetables, says Top Banana’s Barabino. “This enables retailers and consumers access to the highest quality produce when and where they need it.”

It is amazing how much has not changed in the last 40 years, adds D’Arrigo. “Trucks come in, pallets are inspected, produce is taken into the warehouse, sold, and delivered back out via trucks.”