Yesterday and Today

MARKET STATS

Boston Market Terminal (BMT) – Everett
Phone: (617) 389-0482
Fax: (617) 389-0486
Manager: Dana Hayes
Hours: 5:00 am to 1:00 pm,
Monday through Saturday
The BMT is a 68,400-square-foot two-story building with warehouses on the first floor and office space on the second. Space is rented to buyers, sellers, brokers, federal inspectors, and a broad range of companies.

New England Produce Center (NEPC) – Chelsea
Phone: (617) 889-2700
Fax: (617) 889-5309
General Manager: John Lucero
Market Manager: Walter Campbell
Hours: 5:00 am to 11:00 am dailyThe NEPC, larger than its Boston sibling, has bays and attached warehouses owned by each merchant or business. The facility is run by a management firm; its original members established bylaws and a board of directors.

Challenges
As everyone in the produce business knows, challenges can run the gamut from planting and harvest problems to shipping and delivery. For many Massachusetts buyers and sellers, the big story this year was volatile weather. Though inclement weather is certainly nothing new to growers and distributors, the temperatures and seasonal changes seemed even more unpredictable than usual, and not just on the East Coast.

Hot-Cold-Dry-Wet
Merchants at Boston’s two terminal markets agree the weather, both locally and nationally, figured into some rocky times. For example, last fall’s warmer temperatures affected potato production in Idaho, which continued to affect sales in the summer and fall months. Piazza discussed the unusually high temperatures and humidity in Idaho, and how it made for “hot tubers going into storage”—without the usual benefit of cooler night temperatures to propel spuds into ‘the sweat.’ Without this step, stored potatoes were much more susceptible to decay, which in turn limited supply for grower-shippers, wholesalers, and retailers.

Such was the case this past winter, when low quality and shortages affected the market. Ultimately, it worked in favor of wholesalers as tight demand drove “the current market through the roof,” according to Piazza, and also helped “set up a very strong market for the new crop.” This was clearly evidenced by some Wisconsin shippers harvesting early to take advantage of sky-high pricing.