Produce sellers planted firmly in Strip
When Ubbie Cohen, Tony Corso and Fred Siger founded Consumer's Produce in 1952, the Strip District was the Grand Central Station for fresh produce.
The massive terminal building along Smallman Street had railroad cars coming and going, constantly unloading product. Eager owners of grocery stores, large and small, bumped shoulders with early rising housewives and restaurant owners, trying to pick the best produce for their customers and their families.
"I like to buy my produce here in the Strip," said Mary Herndon of Pittsburgh's Spring Hill neighborhood, picking over onions and grapes at Stan's Market on Penn Avenue. "The prices are more reasonable than the supermarkets, and it is convenient for me. You have to get here the right time, though, so it is not so crowded. You have to get here early."
The terminal is still there, but it is just a shadow of its former status. The bustling produce industry has withered down to just a few major suppliers, who are struggling to compete with the huge regional and national suppliers, like Sysco, U.S. Foods and SuperValu, which serve the plum grocery, restaurant and institutional accounts.
Alan L. Sigers, president of Consumer's Produce Inc., which celebrated 50 years in business last month, said that much has changed in the produce industry in Pittsburgh over the years.
"The biggest change over 50 years has been consolidation, on the customer side and on the supplier side," said Siger. He said major companies have taken over the supply side. Unless you are big enough to order in large numbers, they won't do business with you.
"It is more of a corporate world now," continued Siger. "It is much more performance-oriented. Before, it was about relationships with growers and customers. Before it was about building loyalty. There is too little of that now."
Eating trends are different, too. Fruit and vegetable consumption declined nearly 14 percent over the past 10 years, according to the Produce for Better Health Foundation.
And most of the produce consumed in Pittsburgh and across the nation comes from supermarkets, which sell 66 percent of produce nationally, according to the Produce Marketing Association, a trade association with 2,500 members worldwide. Another 32 percent is sold through the food service industry, while only 2 percent is sold directly to consumers through farm markets.
A typical supermarket produce department will carry 315 fresh produce items, mostly traditional items. But better transportation, opening up growing markets in South America and South America, means almost everything is available year-round.
SuperValu, the nation's largest food supplier, supplies produce to all Shop 'N Save stores, as well as all independent Foodland stores in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland.
Very little of Giant Eagle's produce comes from local suppliers, according to Larry Baldauf, Giant Eagle's senior vice president of distribution and logistics. Baldauf said Giant Eagle works with the large growers to get produce, trucking it in to its stores.
"I think the people look for good produce," said Ed Heisler, owner of the Brownsville Road Foodland. "Produce and meat will bring customers in, but if it is not nice, it certainly chases them out."
Sigers said that is why there will always be a need for companies like Consumer's Produce.
"The only reason we can stay in business is because the product is perishable," said Sigers. "(Large grocery chains) will always need a business like us. They need people like us when there is an emergency, when you need to get some product fast, or your batch of apples didn't come in, or your grapes didn't come in the quality or quantity you wanted."
Those produce suppliers who survive are finding that they have to either grow or shrink to serve a very small niche in the market.
"You know, when you and I grew up, there would be these small corner stores, one on every corner," said Siger, who is a past chairman of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, the national trade association for the produce industry.
"Then came the small grocery stores, the early Giant Eagles and A&Ps, which took the place of maybe 20 of those stores," he said. "Then those stores got bigger, to where now some of them are 100,000-square-foot stores. They take the place of four or five of those smaller stores, which means that maybe 100 of those corner stores are gone."
Siger said that kind of consolidation forced Consumers to decide in 1995 to embark upon an aggressive expansion program, erecting a $6 million building in the Strip District in 1997, and then adding a $3 million extension in 2000. The warehouse now boasts 100,000 square feet of floor space for storing, processing and repackaging produce, and at four stories high, merchandise can be stacked to the ceiling.
Consumers Produce brings in "soft fruits" such as grapes, peaches, pears, nectarines and plums from California and to a lesser extent, Arizona; apples and pears from Washington, oranges and other citrus from Florida and Georgia, and melons and cantaloupes from Texas. During the off-season, these soft fruits are brought in from Chile and bananas all come from Central America.
"Our customer base is large," said Siger, who estimates Consumers controls 50 percent of the local produce market. "We handle the mom-and-pops and the large distributors. We service customers within a 200-mile radius. That gets us to Harrisburg, north to almost Buffalo, and west to Columbus."
Siger said that the company would like to extend its service radius to 250 miles, which he said would reach Cincinnati.
"Change is the only thing that is constant in this industry," said Tom Ayoob, owner of Tom Ayoob Inc. produce in the Strip District. Ayoob, the third generation of the family-run business, said there has been an Ayoob selling produce dating back to 1905, when his grandfather, H.K. Ayoob, started out.
"The produce industry has geared itself to the needs of the consumers," Ayoob continued. "The trend has changed from the wife being in the kitchen, doing all the cooking. Now the housewife is out in the work force. And the younger work force is more prone to buy more of a variety. Now they buy a wider variety of fruits all through the winter. Now you can get nectarines and peaches from Chile, rather than just shut it down for the winter."
Like Ayoob, Sun Fresh Produce, also in the Strip District, also has a specialty — tomatoes. Though the company carries a wide variety of produce, serving hotels, hospitals and nearly 300 restaurants, it boasts that it is the largest tomato repacker and distributor in the tri-state area. Sun Fresh also packages its own brand of tomatoes that line the shelves at Giant Eagle, Shop 'N Save, Foodland, and other grocery chains.
"There is not much left of the Pittsburgh produce market," said Frank Catanzaro, co-owner of Sun Freshwith his brother, John. "There are only a few companies left, maybe four, where there used to be way over 100.
"I grew up in the Strip District," said Frank Catanzaro. "At one time, everything was located between 23rd Street down to 15th Street, and from Liberty over to Smallman Street. The chains that used to support the market, they don't do that anymore. They are tied to big distribution houses." he said. Unlike some other markets, like Cleveland, the Pittsburgh market doesn't have that many independent grocery stores, he said.
Sigers disagrees with Catanzaro's assessment of the market and the Strip District.
"The Pittsburgh market is a pretty strong market," he said. "You still have the mom-and-pops come in, and some of the chefs will come in because they like to pick their own produce."
| Wholesale produce companies in the Strip District |
Aliotos Produce
101 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 765-2714
Ayoob Tom Inc
2121 Smallman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 281-5289
Consumers Produce CO
1 21 St, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 281-0722
Tom Lange CO
2031 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 566-1700
Meize Jet-Air Sales
1607 Smallman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 471-3432
Stans
2021 Smallman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15233
(412) 232-3077
Sunfresh Food Service Inc
23 and Smallman Sts., Pittsburgh, PA 15233
(412) 391-7532
Superior Produce CO
2018 Smallman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 566-9086
| Top 10 fruits sold in U.S. supermarkets |
| Top 10 Vegetables sold in U.S. supermarkets |
Source: Produce Marketing Association
