Boston Business

Not far from the Mystic River are Boston’s two terminal markets, moving a mountain of fresh produce every day to customers throughout the city, up and down the East Coast, into Canada, and beyond. At both the New England Produce Center (NEPC) and the Boston Market Terminal (BMT) we talked with merchants about current trends, retail expansion, and opportunities to improve service and expand their businesses.

Local is not a new concept to these vendors, as a large portion of the produce that comes through the NEPC and BMT is homegrown right in their home state of Massachusetts. With a total agricultural value of $395 billion, the Bay State has a grand total of 7,755 farms, including 1,634 growing fruits and vegetables.

Top commodities grown in the state include apples, cantaloupe, peaches, pears, berries, potatoes, onions, lettuce, corn, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and Brussels sprouts.

Cranberries, however, remain the top produce crop in Massachusetts, with a total market value of almost $100 million. Providing nearly 23 percent of the nation’s supply, Massachusetts ranks second in total U.S. cranberry production after Wisconsin.

A Powerful Pair
While many outsiders assume the NEPC in Chelsea and the BMT in Everett are fierce competitors, these two markets collaborate to keep fresh fruit and vegetables flowing to supermarkets, restaurants, institutions, and customers far and near—ultimately feeding more than 8 million people in just the U.S. Northeast and Canada alone.

Consequently, over the past year, the NEPC has made a few upgrades and enhancments. “We’re making little improvements all the time in the infrastructure here, including new fences, paving, new lighting and so forth,” remarks Anthony Sharrino, president of Eaton & Eustis Company, a receiver and importer on the market. “The facility is getting old, and we’ve got to keep maintaining it.”

Sharrino adds that the NEPC benefits from an ideal location. “Geographically, it’s very well placed,” he explains. “We’re near all the major highways, and we have easy access to route 95, route 90. Although the roads surrounding the produce center in the city of Chelsea could stand some improvement, we’re very well situated to do business all over New England. It all adds up to a very good market.”

The NEPC’s prime location is one reason New York-based distributor Baldor Specialty Foods opened Baldor Boston right up the road from the market in 2006.

“We’ve been in Boston for about eight or nine years now, and we moved into a new building two years ago,” says general manager Glenn Messinger. Although Messinger says they are in a great location, he adds that the company is already outgrowing its current space. “It looks like we’re going to need a bigger facility within the next two years or so, so we’re starting to look into some opportunities.”