Midwest consumers go wild for local produce

It may be cold in Midwest winters, but when it gets warm, the homegrown deal finds huge demand.

“In-season Midwest and locally grown dominate,” says John Carkoski, COO of J&J Distributing Company, St. Paul, MN. “It’s not even close,” he says.

Pepe Vega, owner of La Galera Produce, LLC, in Chicago, says his firm also emphasizes in-season regional sourcing.

“When the Midwest starts, we stop a little bit from Mexico,” says the third-generation importer. “We try to support all the local growers, mainly in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.”

He estimates 70 percent of his annual volume comes from Mexico, 25 percent from the United States and 5 percent from Canada.

Sourcing from the region offers obvious advantages this year, says Dan Pupillo, president of Midwest Best Produce, in St. Louis. “With freight rates going up, we push more ad pricing during the local deals in the Midwest because you’ve got a lot less freight (cost),” he says.

Year-round, however, there’s no shortage of imports in Midwest markets. “Every year for the past 10 years, importers have continued to increase volume,” contends Pupillo. “You never have shortages.”

Still, distributors say customers favor domestic product, when available. Carkoski says both consumers and customers prefer U.S.-grown products when possible, though there can be both price and quality issues.

“Our big push is to buy U.S.-grown product as often as we possibly can,” Carkoski says. “At the end of the day, retail outlets that are willing to pay a little more want U.S. product. But there’s always the sacrifice you have to make where quality out of Guatemala or quality out of Mexico may be better. We put that onus on our customers to make sure they’re the ones making the decision.”

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This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full article.