'Greengrocer Joe’ touts his favourite produce

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 14

'Greengrocer Joe’ touts his favourite produce

By

JOHN HUTCHISON

in San Francisco

New Zealand blueberries, reported to have sold recently in San Francisco for as much as SUS 22 per kilo, are presently retailing at about half that price. At $2.25 per 8-ounce punnet, they are still too expensive, says Mr Joe Carcione, gadfly of the greengrocer trade. Mr . Carcione, a veteran in the fruit and vegetable business in San Francisco, has hard words for the representatives here for New Zealand exporters. In language as salty as a kipper and as tart as an unripe Granny Smith apple, he derides their sales practices and condemns their pricing. Tens — perhaps hundreds of thousands of housewives see him on nearly 50 television stations from California to New York. In Northern California, his good-natured, gravelly voice, responding to telephone callers, rattles off advice, recipes, warnings and . tips .on how - to - tell - the - good - ones • from - the- bad - ones/ , for a huge radio / audience : every:week-day morning. His. column in the area’s largest' newspaper recommends the « best bargains in the market ‘ and flags .items which pre too ’.: green, or/toobld Or too dear, ; ' : With some unique pronunciations and inventive syntax, he

ad libs cooking and nutritional hints on everything from artichokes to zucchini. “Lemme show you why this is such a good veg-tabble because of the fact that there’s no doubt about it that it is high in vitamin A,” he says, slashing away at a carrot, a capsicum, or some exotic fruit as he beams at his television audience. Mr Car- : cione never met a “veg-tabble” he didn’t like, unless it was picked too soon or allowed to spoil. He has harsh words for growers who ship bullet-hard melons and green strawberries. He spills out family recipes and cooking advice from his Sicilian heritage, usually calling for garlic and olive oil. He regards both of these ingredients as essential to almost any food; short of pavlova and hokey pokey ice cream. Amiable as he is on television* and radio, the famous greengrocer can be as thorny ■ as. a boysenberry cane when, he :- is in telephone conversation about the marketing;of .New' Zealand produce in California; ; Retired from selling fruit and: vegetables, and. reputedly wealthy, he devotes most of his ’..time' to ; his , television, radio; . : and newspaper enterprises, and r his .mention of a newly arrived . shipment of berries,' or of the week’s best vegetable bargain,

can have an immediate effect on sales. ’ . .

“the representatives here are crazy!” he says from his office in the big produce terminal in South San Francisco. “They claim they can’t sell something that’s' coming in from New Zealand. Why in the world don’t they tell me when merchandise is coming from New Zealand? I have to walk the street to find out that it’s here.”

Beautiful apricots, peaches and nectarines from the South Island are now coming in, said the ebullient man called Joe by thousands who write to him, crowd to shake his hand at event he attends and talk to him on the air; But. he found out about the New Zealand stone fruit arrivals only after they got here. “That’s stupid,” he said. The apricots and peaches, bringing about $l6 for a tray of ten pounds will be priced at some exclusive markets at twice that. The blueberries which brought $22 per kilo were taken only by some very de luxe restaurants, said Greengrocer' Joe. “It would cost $lOO,OOO a day to reach my audience,” he said. If the fruit or “veg-tabble” appeals to - him, it goes on the air for free.