Markets Produce Few Buyers

The Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market is a key link in the Southland’s food chain, supplying restaurants, caterers and independent grocery stores.

In the darkness of early morning, buyers come here to collect crates holding thousands of pounds of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, pineapples and assorted greens that end up on diners’ plates.

Monday wasn’t the usual morning. Wholesalers and their workers were present, waiting on concrete loading docks that snake through the 30-acre market.

But the throngs of buyers didn’t come.

At 2:30 a.m., Robert Barrios, a dispatcher for a company that specializes in fruits, vegetables and nuts, looked down the loading docks and shook his head.

“This time of the day, you usually have trucks pulling in, pulling out. People yelling, ‘Hey, let’s go! Get out of the way!’ ” said Barrios, 45. “This is not a normal day.”

In the predawn hours before Monday’s protests, the produce market -- which stands between farm and table -- was a stage in which the role of immigrants in American society was played out.

Peter Arreola, who handles sales of mangoes for Umina Bros. Inc. at the market, didn’t need the slowdown to prove the point.

“I need the Mexicans,” said Arreola, 45, whose parents emigrated from Mexico in the 1950s. “They don’t just pick the mango, they eat the mango.”

Down the dock at Olympic Fruit & Vegetable, Alex Olguin -- wearing a white ranchero hat and a shirt emblazoned with a jalapeno -- leaned against the wall and shrugged.

“On a normal day we move 1,400 to 1,600 crates,” he said. “Today, maybe 300 to 400.”

The effects were being felt here because the market supplies independent food stores and particularly mom-and-pop operations that proliferate in Latino neighborhoods. Some of these stores were closed Monday.

The nearby 7th Street Market -- the second-largest wholesale produce operation in the Southland -- didn’t open at all.

The Wholesale Produce Market, which generates nearly $1 billion in sales annually, according to its board, was mostly ready for business as usual.

Barrios, who said he entered the United States illegally in 1974 and has since become a citizen, said he supported the boycott but came to work because his union, Teamsters Local 630, told members that skipping work because of the event would be considered an unexcused absence.

Teamsters officials did not return calls asking for comment.

“We have responsibilities,” Barrios said.

“I have a daughter in college. I can’t just take a day.”

Some of the produce market’s largest customers, including Jons Marketplace with 15 stores in immigrant neighborhoods, were open Monday. Company Vice President Andy Meechan said, “it’s business as usual today.”

At a Jons in Koreatown, close to the site of the afternoon march, the store was busy with many customers buying bottles of water and snacks for the demonstration.

Some independent stores that remained open, such as Washington Square Market in Mid-City, bought extra produce over the weekend in case their suppliers were not able to deliver Monday.

Store owner Pamela Roberson, who started the business two months ago, said she supported the boycott and gave many of her employees the day off.

But the store, which is in a Latino neighborhood, turned out to be busier than expected, she said.

“Everyone has to eat, I guess,” she said.

Especially for a celebration. At the produce market, Jesse Martin, 63, who came into the country on a tourist visa in 1961, was marking the 40th anniversary of the day he began work in wholesale produce. He started as a laborer, loading and hauling crates on a hand truck.

Martin became a citizen more than 20 years ago and now owns one of the larger operations at the facility, Value Produce.

To celebrate the occasion he brought in a taco vendor to treat anyone nearby to a free beef taco breakfast.

With extra time on their hands, fellow owners and workers gathered to congratulate him.

“Later,” Martin said, “I’ll go to the rally.”

Staff writer Daniel Yi contributed to this report.