L.A. Dealers Try to Get Rid of Banned Fruit

Long before dawn Tuesday, work crews at Cal-Fruit Co.’s loading dock at the Los Angeles Produce Market began the sudden push for citrus.

In the dark, workers strained behind hand trucks to wheel out tottering stacks of fruit crates to waiting trucks. Cal-Fruit forklifts whined around them, moving out pallets as quickly as they had been unloaded. By the time the sky lightened, row after row of plump grapefruits, oranges and lemons were ready for inspection at the edge of the dock.

Citrus, sighed Jim Iwamoto, the firm’s fruit manager, was “the only way to go” in the wake of a sudden U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision to place a hold on all grapes, peaches, plums and nectarines imported from Chile because of a cyanide scare.

“We’ve got 15,000 boxes (worth between $180,000 and $210,000) from Chile just sitting in the warehouse right now,” a frustrated Iwamoto said.

As the final hours of a rough day came to a close Tuesday morning, fruit dealers in the downtown produce district were still scrambling to avoid being stuck with thousands of pounds of ripening Chilean imports. With time and the fragility of their wares working against them, every phone call and rushed conversation was seized upon as an opportunity to salvage a bad situation growing steadily worse.

Normally, mornings breed healthy chaos at the Wholesale Produce Market and its sister facility, the ancient 7th Street Market, where about 50 wholesalers and smaller firms unload and dispense tons of fruits and produce destined each day for Southern California’s markets and restaurants. But on Tuesday, the Chilean produce embargo put a nervous edge on the activity.

Sales to Mexico

Some dealers inquired desperately about selling their goods to Mexico. Others warned darkly of dealers who might try to disguise their Chilean imports as American-grown.

“The $64,000 question around here is what the hell we’re gonna do with this stuff,” said Jerry Vessey, the chief fruit salesman at Archie’s Produce, where about 1,500 Chilean crates sat unopened. Answers never seemed to come.

Vessey, a white-bearded man with 40 years in the fruit business, paused wearily from phone talks with buyers to describe the hole his firm is in. “Everything we’ve got is in cold storage right now,” he said. “Some of it’s ripe already. It’s only a matter of days for what’s left. I don’t know who’s gonna take a bath on this, but it’s not gonna be just us.”

Fruit dealers at the Produce Market said that over the last several years, their firms have grown increasingly dependent on imports from Chile to bolster the winter selection of non-citrus fruits.

Fruit Improved

“It used to be the Chilean fruit that came in wasn’t up to California standards,” said Guy Panno, a 30-year produce business veteran with the Sam Perricone Citrus Co. “You’d get a lot of rotten product, fruit with scars. But the last two years, it’s come in really beautiful. A lot of the dealers were just getting used to it, and now this.”

Faced with the probability that Chilean imports might be impounded until California produce reaches local markets in early May, major wholesalers such as Cal-Fruit said they would use citrus fruits and other safe items, such as bananas and tropical imports, as substitutes for Chilean products on local supermarket shelves.

Overnight, after area supermarkets had stopped buying produce from Chile, Cal-Fruit and other major produce dealers hauled their excess imports into chilly, cavernous storage rooms in the faint hope that the government’s impound order would be lifted before the fruit rotted.

Sales Plummet

The general manager of the largest importer of Chilean fruit in California said that the FDA’s decision had caused sales to plummet overnight from $2.5 million a week to nothing. Rick Eastes, whose David Oppenheimer import firm brings in a third of California’s crop from Chile, said the company would have to dispose of its entire stock within two weeks.

Because the big fruit wholesalers buy their Chilean product in massive quantities, they expect to be able to return their Chilean shipments to importers for full refunds. “For us, it’s more of an inconvenience than anything else,” said Cal-Fruit’s Iwamoto.

But for the “second jobbers,” the smaller dealers that buy from the wholesalers and then sell to food markets, schools and other institutions, the federal impoundment raised fears that they would have to “eat” their losses.

County agriculture officials said that some jobbers might have insurance to tide them over, but it was uncertain whether they would have coverage for shipments impounded by the government.

Irked by Jokes

The jobbers’ foul moods were hardly improved by the jokes that spread quickly among produce dealers who do not handle Chilean imports. “Crate of nectarines--$1!” cried one wag. Yelled another, referring to the hasty refrigeration of the imports: “You looking for grapes from Chile? Try any icebox!”

Jerry Vessey first heard the grim news the night before on television. His immediate reaction was instant and salty. As the morning progressed at Archie’s Produce dock in the new terminal, Vessey spent most of his time on the phone, bracing for nerve-wracking negotiations with importers and buyers over who would assume the financial responsibility for the heavy losses that loom ahead.

“I think the government could have done more analysis,” Vessey said. And to the news that the Agriculture Department had banned red table grapes after cyanide was detected in two grapes found in Philadelphia, Vessey added bitterly: “I mean, come on. Two grapes?”

Over in the old 7th Street Market, fruit dealers had better things to do than grouse. At one stall, fragrant with the cloying odor of overripe fruit, Ruben L. Barraza hovered close to a white telephone while he discussed plans with fellow dealers to ship their Chilean plums, grapes and nectarines to Mexico.

‘No Problem’

“I just have one way,” said Barraza, a salesman for Manny’s Produce who wanted to dispose of 2,000 crates from Chile. “I sell to Mexico. No problem. The people want to buy fruit there. It’s my way.”

Barraza said he knew of no legal obstacles to selling fruit to a foreign country after it had been placed on administrative hold in the United States. But Leon Spaugy, the county’s agricultural commissioner, said that any shipment from Los Angeles would have to be approved by federal officials before being sold.

“My understanding is that if they want to sell produce to a foreign country, the lot would have to be cleared first by the FDA,” Spaugy said.

Half the Original Cost

Vessey, who is also considering selling his Chilean imports to Mexico, figures that most fruit dealers would only be able to sell their shipments for about half the original cost. But, he noted: “It’s better than eating it.”

Other dealers warned that some renegade fruit merchants might try to disguise their Chilean fruit as American merchandise, transferring grapes, plums and other imported fruit into crates with domestic markings and trying to sell them to local stores.

“All they have to do is find some American boxes,” said Antonio Holguin, who sells part-time at Manny’s. “It happens. I know people who do these things. People don’t ask questions around here. And the people who do these things, they think they don’t eat it, so who will be hurt? But what if my family buys it?”

Fruit Inspection

Once the fruit is inspected at the market, Spaugy said, there is no mechanism to weed out domestic produce from foreign produce. “There’s no foolproof way,” he said. “I’d like to think that there aren’t too many immoral people out there who would do something like that.”

Outside one stall at the old 7th Street Market, though, more than 25 empty grape boxes were piled up in the trash. Small purple decals on each box gave away the fruit’s country of origin:

“Quality Produce of Chile.”

THE WARNING OVER FRUIT

The FDA’s warnings about fruit from Chile include grapes, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, seedless watermelons, cantaloupes, Juan Canary and honeydew melons, raspberries, nectarines, quinces, Granny Smith green apples, cactus pears, pears and plums.

Consumers should not worry about fruit already eaten because cyanide is fast-acting.

The two grapes in which cyanide was confirmed had been punctured and were discolored, with a ring of crystalline material around the puncture, the FDA said. A third grape near the other two was “slashed” but no cyanide was detected.

Some cyanide occurs naturally in acidic fruit. Potassium or sodium cyanide converts to hydrogen cyanide and dissipates.