Holiday cornucopia: NY produce market supplies the goods
Thanksgiving and the holidays are the busiest times of the year for supermarkets
NEW YORK (AP) — It was the wee hours of the morning, and the docks at New York's largest produce market were bustling in the cold. Thanksgiving was inching closer, and sacks of onions, potatoes and carrots were flying off the shelves.
Amidst the whir, buyers and sellers were finalizing deals on tomatoes, mangoes and lettuce. Trucks stood ready to haul away the bounty — a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables destined for supermarket produce aisles, household refrigerators and, eventually, millions of mouths across the Northeast during the gluttonous holidays.
“This time of year is our busiest. We have Thanksgiving, we have Christmas and New Year’s. All of these are very big family and big-eating holidays,” said Stefanie Katzman, the executive vice president of S. Katzman Produce, one of the country's largest and oldest produce dealers, which operates at the Hunts Point Produce Market.
The market is a sprawling collection of wholesalers that make it the nation’s busiest distribution center for fruits and vegetables, responsible for more than 60% of the daily stock for New York City and feeds over 30 million customers, according to another Hunts Point wholesaler, E. Armata Inc.
