Objective: wholesale produce markets are an integral part of fresh fruit and vegetable supply chains and provide infrastructure to help producers safely and effectively get their products to market

Understanding this, AMS contributed significant resources to the construction of wholesale produce markets across the country in the 1950S and 60S. At the time this investment represented a significant jump in modernizing wholesale produce supply chains and served to keep producers growing and consumers FED. In the intervening years these markets have come to form the bedrock of fresh fruit and vegetable aggregation and distribution processes in the united states. But despite the essential role of these markets in ensuring supply chains are safe and reliable, public investment in the infrastructure and transportation networks that underpin wholesale produce markets has lagged. As a result, while still serving essential supply chain functions, wholesale markets are now struggling under the weight of outdated facility design and deferred maintenance, while their locations may have constraints that limit the transportation of products to, from and within their market facilities, as the areas around them may have urbanized or transportation patterns may have changed. Ultimately, wholesale produce markets are in desperate need of updates that will modernize them to align with changes in aggregation and distribution processes and transportation patterns that have occurred over the past 70 years. Since most wholesale produce markets were constructed our fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain processes have shifted in significant ways. From how product is transported (trucks rather than rail) to food safety regulations and increased frequency of supply chain shocks (extreme weather and pandemics) and changes in customer demand (more ripening rooms and wholesalers offering fresh cut services). Paired with concerns over general deferred maintenance, these shifts make IT clear that wholesale produce markets need significant modernization to bring them into the current supply chain ERA. And while aging infrastructure is not unique to wholesale produce markets, IT is of particular concern given the essential role these markets play in ensuring a safe and reliable food supply. Ultimately there is an important opportunity to take lessons learned from the past 50 years and use them to plan for next 50,especially as leadership of markets across the country is aging, and institutional knowledge is slowly being lost. USDA AMS and cornell university will enter into a cooperative agreement to gain a better understanding of the current state of on-site wholesale produce market infrastructure. Project objectives include: a)design and implement a survey of wholesale produce market managers that captures qualitative and quantitative responses. B) analyze survey responses to create a report on the state of wholesale produce markets with suggestions for future investment that will help modernize markets and address needs reviewed above. C) conduct 13 case studies of selected markets focusing on their on-site infrastructure and transportation needs per draft legislation requirements. D) collaborate with the volpe center and the national association of produce market managers (napmm) to create planning tools for market managers to support market modernization and growth via relationship building with local officials. Through this agreement the project team will: identify market managers to survey, collaborate with napmm and volpe to identify information to be captured in the survey, conduct case studies of 5 large and 8MID-size markets, analyze and interpret survey responses and case study data and publish a report, and create technical assistance resources for market managers.