Spicing Up the Industry: Introducing Paul Manfre and The Credible Vegetable Report

Join us on The Fresh Cut for a landmark episode direct from SEPC's Southern Exposure in Tampa, Florida. We're thrilled to welcome Paul Manfre, the renowned Red Pepper King, to the Fresh Cred family. Starting March 29th, dive into "The Credible Vegetable Report with Paul Manfre," your weekly dose of expert analysis on fresh produce sales, quality, consumer trends, and much more.

In this engaging episode, discover Paul's journey from the vibrant streets of New York to becoming a pivotal figure in the fresh produce industry. With decades of experience, Paul's new show promises to spice up the conversation around fresh produce, focusing on everything from domestic and international sales to innovative strategies for boosting consumption.

What's Inside:

Paul's Vision: Learn about his commitment to increasing fresh produce consumption and his plans for the new show.

Market Insights: Get a sneak peek into Paul's expert analysis on current trends in fresh produce and how he plans to address consumer demand.

Engagement & Growth: Understand Paul's approach to engaging with a broader audience and enriching the industry dialogue.

Special Thanks to Our Partners:
This episode and the launch of "The Credible Vegetable Report" are made possible by the generous support of our sponsors. A heartfelt thank you to:

Sunfed: Pioneers in providing fresh, quality produce year-round.
IFCO: Innovators in reusable packaging solutions for the fresh food sector.
Zubelle Industries: Leading the way in sustainable agriculture technologies.
Sweet Seasons: Celebrating the bounty of the earth with their delicious, seasonally harvested fruits.

Don't Miss Out:
Mark your calendars for the premiere of "The Credible Vegetable Report with Paul Manfre" on March 29th. Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Get ready for invaluable insights that promise to transform your understanding of the fresh produce industry.

Connect with Paul:
LinkedIn: Paul Manfre - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-manfre-1214a134/
Website: https://www.redpepperking.com
Company: http://topkatz.com

Follow Us for More:
Stay updated with The Fresh Cut and never miss an episode. Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for the latest in fresh produce insights and industry trends.

Engage with Our Community:
We love hearing from you! Share your thoughts, questions, and insights with us in the comments below. Let's cultivate a vibrant community passionate about the fresh produce industry.

Transcript

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here at the Fresh Cred we have an exciting announcement to share with our loyal supporters today we're announcing a new addition to the Fresh Cred family and we're bringing it to you live from SEPC's Southern exposure in Tampa Florida can you stand the suspense Mason yeah so me neither virtual Craig somewhere can you stand the suspense probably not so without further ado here it is so many of you know the Red Pepper King Paul Manfrey and if you follow him on social media you also know that Paul has published a show for some time where he speaks about product demand and availability quality consumer trends fresh produce consumption and generally and everything and anything that is on Paul's mind we're excited to announce Paul will be joining the Fresh Cred Group with his own weekly show dropping every Friday Paul with his years of experience will bring passion and credible information to the fresh produce industry every week in fact so much so that we named it the Credible Vegetable Report with Paul Manfrey see what we did there the Credible Vegetable Report so Mark your calendars the first episode will release later this month on March 29th it will be available on YouTube Apple Podcast Spotify etc basically anywhere you consume podcast content today Paul's breath of expertise will surely provide his listeners with valuable information and beyond his career in produce sales started on the streets of New York that's about as ground floor as you can get since then he has basically done it all as a relates to produce sales and procurement from domestic international and everything that implies but to do the man justice we have invited him to join us today here on The Fresh Cut live at SEPC's Southern Exposure to learn a bit more about him and what it is that fuels the incredible passion he has for the industry please join me in welcoming the Red Pepper King himself Paul Manfrey Paul thanks for being here thank you very much thank you for having me very excited to uh to do this I'm always about uh no matter who has a story I'm I'm always uh excited about bringing that story of fresh produce to to the masses I uh I try to support everyone in our industry I think uh no one should be excluded and uh this is this is another platform for me hopefully to uh increase uh consumption of uh fresh protest in the United States at the end of the day I know that's really important to you I mean I've heard you say it many times increase consumption um that's awesome we're super excited as well um I think we'll obviously do great work together uh tell me a little bit about what you look forward to from um um I guess production standpoint maybe from your well anyone that's been following me for the last 6 years know that headphones microphone is totally foreign to the poor man free podcast it's it's been done for the last 6 years on an iPhone and so now with the and I have to say most of the time when I actually listen to myself I know all I have a lot of feedback of how you appreciate and love what I say but when I listen to myself I hate it I hate the ums the US and the ooze you know and that's only because this is totally unscripted uh first hand pen the camera there's no notes on my desk that's how I I do this and when I sometimes when I have an idea that sends me off to another idea it's it's literally there was no thought so as I'm thinking about it in my head what comes on my head so that part of it having a more quality of production to me and and more importantly hopefully a new audience sure that would be a it would be a plush for all of us yeah that's awesome yeah I think it it relaxes you as well um as far as when you know that uh maybe it's not the end of the world yeah anything stupid I say could be edited out sure possibly haha stupid um yeah cause I was gonna ask you you know what what lapse in judgment uh did you experience that would make you agree to to work with us but there's no there's no lapse in judgment again I support the podcast in our industry any but you know I'm one platform right but there are others in our industry and we all should support the other people in our industry because no one we have the greatest story ever told that no one has ever told and never telling it the retailers don't tell it the wholesalers don't tell it you know perfect example look what avocados from Mexico did because they told their story look what that you know they have Super Bowl edge every year because they had the foresight to tell the story and now look at that product we as an industry they are the only ones that told that story my hope is to sell that story and more importantly I hope this gets traction with consumers I'm hoping this podcast gets because consumers can change a lot of the things in that industry we all know that once consumers get involved and they'll say oh we don't like this the end every industry whatever it is changes their attitude or they'll change their yes they'll adjust to what consumer demands that's awesome yeah um so Craig and I I don't remember on what podcast it was but that one of these shows we talked about our business you know the fresh produce business being the cleanest energy you can find right um you talk about people talk about clean burning energy or clean you know fossil fuels all that stuff but really I mean consumption in your day to day life um you must be thinking about all the time I mean protest is just it's not only what you sell but what you consume I mean you're walking the talk right right yeah it's a again it goes it it goes back to no matter no one's telling the story to fact like for health and longevity like if any diet if you if you wanna be on a keto diet they recommend fruits and vegetables so an all protein diet they they'll recommend fruits and vegetables Mediterranean diet everyone is recommends fruits and vegetables for health and longevity and again no one's telling no one's telling a story I'm a you know as you said in the in the opening I started selling produce from a push cart in Manhattan wow you know I had a my fruit store was we need we need to get the rights to the movie yeah cause it sounds like a movie yeah I can see the opening I'm gonna tell you briefly so Metch Parking Garage was on 40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue Manhattan Today is the New York Times building but that was a parking garage in the Garment Center in the 70s and the 80s when I started this business in that parking garage all the major designers of that Gloria von Furstenberg Calvin Klein parked their cars in that so next we had four parking spaces my food store was 4 by 8 two sheets of 4 by 8 plywood and milk uh plastic milk crates to too high to put it on and then we you know we stack so it was it was parking spaces you know from six in the morning till maybe 10 and then from 10 in the morning till 8 o'clock at night it was a it was a food store and all the people used to walk down to Port Authority Bus Terminal which was down which which is down the block right and in those basically four hours we sold an 18 foot and a 24 foot straight job of produce in four hours wow every day so it was go go go so so and how we did it which is my supply and demand theory back then uh there's more mom and pop retail stores like in Brooklyn you know in the in New York City and they all had inside and outside so what outside was always the cheaper items that that were abundant right abundant and affordable and inside with the better stuff so they use the outside stuff to bring the joy the people inside so the fruit peddlers the people on the outside we took all that stuff from the Hunch Point market that was cheap right and we all consumed it and then in a week's time that item wasn't cheap anymore because the system got cleared out but guess what there was two or three items behind it yeah and that's how the supply chain work in the 70s and 80s because we sold what was cheap and affordable at a price to move and consumers bought it today you don't have that paradigm that's what my my biggest thing is squash is $46 f o b now could get it to New York for nine to ten dollars for 25 pounds every retail change is $1 49 or $1 99 a pound so if that brings back fifty dollars on a nine dollar investment and that's what's wrong with our supply chain today that's why I would like to to get and and this is not only you know the other side of the coin is uh rowers and wholesales also take the price too high sometimes not thinking about the retail so this is not this is not a one side it's not one sided this is you know we have to learn to meet in the middle for everyone's benefit so Paul I guess for the audience that's a taste of what you're gonna get on on Paul's podcast um but another part of it is we're running a little bit short on time but definitely wanna get into this with you um your market report or what you communicate on a weekly basis can you give folks an idea like say what's what this week was everything yeah I I have a lot to share I have to a lot to talk about this one of them would I it would perfect dove tale from what I just said so the cucumber market and the red pepper market everyone that knows me I I I believe I do 12 to 15 items I really believe I'm the best in the country especially like with red peppers so this is the other side of the coin what happens for people that don't know a lot of times in uh a a grower let's especially in Mexico uh they'll raise a price and I'm not saying it's unwarranted so they'll raise your price we're gonna take the red pepper Mark from last week it went from 24 95 then it creeped up to 28 95 30 95 32 95 but one guy is the highest 34 95 okay what happens is they let's say a guy is 28 95 and they get they seek quotes of 34 95 what happened that grower goes back to his representative and says well how come you're not getting 34 95 or 32 9 so what happens is the whole industry moves up to those unrealistic prices why do I say unrealistic because you're gonna find next week those guys that were 32 95 and 34 95 they were the ones that are gonna kill retail why because those 32 95 peppers is 33 are gonna cost about $37 delivered that's about 2,050 cents a pound wholesale so the retail is gonna do the three 99 how many people that you think are gonna buy red peppers next week for three 99 so what's gonna happen that market's gonna fall they should have just kept that market just say it 26 28 95 where everybody makes money retail could still be in a reasonable range and that's and and red peppers and the same exact scenario happened with cucumbers so those two markets next week are coming off not because of our extreme abundance but the demand side of that equation is gonna fall off and then the shippers are gonna realize hey I'm not selling red peppers I'm not selling cucumbers like I was last week and that's what's gonna drive these markets lower and on the retail side a lot of retailers will not dollar course average what do I mean by that if you have 50 red peppers in the in the in the in the box that cost you $30 and you buy 50 more that they they usually won't they'll usually wait till they sell those 50 at $32 and now let's say the market is $15 instead of dollar cost averaging right so those are 30 this is 15 so we're gonna take those two together average them and now we're gonna sell them like they cost $20 right that's how you move the stuff through retail but current day retail they don't make those adjustments and these are the things we did constantly because if you get caught with high priced inventory well maybe someone's not in that same league right so maybe they cleaned out already and now that you're in competition with a guy that's paying half the price but if your dollar cost average you could and you keep on averaging down and down so these are the things I talk about I'm trying to give you some old school knowledge especially with the computer like that you should be able to hit F4 and get that average now right it shouldn't even be I used to do it on a paper bag I got 32 of this 17 of that I paid this and this you know what I mean like I did on a brown paper bag you can do it F4 our average is 1645 okay

let's sell them according to 16: 13:16

00 forty five you know easy but you know again no one's doing it and I believe you you just gotta get out of the box you just gotta you just gotta know uh that yeah this is the way we always did it doesn't work because this is the way we always did it sir I wanna just give you one of the tidbit I I sell elongated red peppers predominantly and I said why aren't you Canadian retailers selling elongated red peppers why because the 11 pound blocky market was 1895 and I was given edge out for 1095 on 15 pound red peppers what in Canada they believe for the last 30 years we can't sell elongated red peppers they believe that and then Shelby's went on sale for the month of February and guess what they sold some red peppers they sold elongated red peppers and that and that made guys a Montreal wholesalers by elongated red pepper so you know I could remember when in 1989 when we had a freeze they never sold Ray uh Roman tomatoes in Boston but there was no other tomatoes so they actually started selling now I think we ship four or five loads a week uh from from top catch to uh being Roman yeah Roman threats in Boston again it's just getting out of the box and just because this is the way we always did it it's not the always way it's the way you always did it for the last 30 years but there's guys around like me that know that you how you did it 50 years ago and they still work okay so for your produce nerds this is the kind of stuff you're gonna listen to on Paul's podcast which I think is I mean I guess you could say technical to of large degree but it's great it's good information especially great for folks coming up in the industry at minimum to know the history of even the kind of stuff you were doing as a young man I think is awesome so by all means Mark your calendar March 29th is a drop date of Paul's podcast The Credible Vegetable Report with Paul Manfrey that's dropping on March 29th follow us at the Fresh Credit on X YouTube Instagram Facebook LinkedIn anywhere you consume your podcast media Paul you wanna plug in your social media yeah uh follow me on LinkedIn uh.com Paul Manfrey and follow me at Red Pepper king.com and my company is a topcats we have offices in uh Nogalas Arizona Mission Texas and New York City so Bronx New York so please it's a hell of a company oh yeah we have we have it we have it all covered haha alright Paul thanks for being here we're super excited um hope to see you again soon and we'll be we'll be waiting with baited breath for March 29th