E. Armata is a fourth-generation wholesale produce distributor operating out of the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx. For more than 100 years — since Erasmo Armata began selling lemons from a burlap sack in Manhattan and the family took a stall at the Washington Street Market — we have supplied fresh fruit and vegetables by the case and the pallet to grocers, bodegas, restaurants and institutional kitchens across New York City and the tri-state area.

We are SQF certified through the Safe Quality Food Institute, GMP certified, and hold a 100 percent superior rating under the FDA’s HACCP program. Our facility carries more than 60,000 square feet of temperature-controlled storage, and our own fleet leaves the market every day.

To open a wholesale account, call 718-991-5600 or complete a credit application.

What We Supply

We buy direct from hundreds of growers and shippers and move volume through the market daily, across twelve categories:

We carry the most recognisable brands in fresh produce — Del Monte, Dole, Alpine Fresh, Bengard, C&B Farms, Kern Ridge, Mucci Farms, Jim Pandol & Company and others — alongside our own E. Armata label. In the salad department, brand-name clamshells are available in both organic and conventional choices.

Specialty and Latin/Caribbean Produce

Beyond the staples we run one of the deeper specialty ranges on the market — yautia lila and yautia blanca, batata, malanga and coco malanga, ñame and ñame espino, yampi, ajicito, Korean batata and more.

This matters to a particular kind of buyer. The bodegas, independent grocers and Latin and Caribbean markets that make up much of the Bronx, upper Manhattan and Queens trade cannot build a shelf out of commodity items alone, and most wholesalers do not carry this range with any consistency. We do, we carry it year-round rather than seasonally, and we break it to the case so a single store can stock it without committing to pallet volume.

If you are sourcing a specific variety and do not see it listed, call us — the range on the floor is wider than the range on the website.

Who We Supply

We sell to anyone buying produce at volume in and around New York City:

Supermarkets and grocery groups — programme buying across a full category list, week in and week out.
Independent grocers and bodegas — broad and shallow, a few cases across many items. We break to the case.
Restaurants, caterers and foodservice — daily delivery on a working kitchen’s schedule.
Schools, hospitals and institutional kitchens — with the certification paperwork a procurement file needs.
Other distributors and re-packers — supplied from the same floor, with a dedicated repacking facility on site.

If you are buying for a restaurant or a foodservice operation specifically, our food distribution service for NYC kitchens covers how we work with chefs, grocers and institutional buyers in more detail.

Where We Deliver

Daily wholesale produce delivery across New York City and the tri-state area We deliver daily across all five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island — as well as Long Island, New Jersey and the surrounding tri-state region. Our trucks run further into the Northeast on regular routes.

Because we operate from inside the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, our fleet starts its run in the city rather than outside it — minutes from the Bruckner and the Major Deegan. The Hunts Point Produce Market is the largest wholesale produce market in the United States, and being on that floor is what lets us hold breadth: when a grower is short, there is somewhere to turn the same morning rather than the next week.

Buyers who prefer to collect can pick up directly at our Hunts Point facility. The market is open to the public, and our team can have an order staged and ready for you.

How to Order

Opening an account

New wholesale customers start with a credit application. Approval brings a customer code and a login for our online order portal.

Placing an order

Order through the portal, or directly with your salesperson. Our distribution and sales team — Arthur DePinto, Robert Kassoff, Mike Marello and Jay Choi — works the market floor daily and knows what is moving before the price list does.

Order sizes and cut-off times

We supply everyone from single-store bodegas to some of the region’s largest buyers, so these vary by item, by season and by delivery route. Call 718-991-5600 and your salesperson will tell you exactly what applies to your account.

Paying invoices

Invoices can be paid through our secure online payment portal using the customer code on your invoice, available 24/7. Billing questions go to accountsreceivable@earmata.com or 718-991-5600.

Food Safety and Quality Control

Food safety is not a document at E. Armata; it is how the floor runs. Food safety and quality control are central to preventing food-borne illnesses such as Escherichia coli O157, Shigella and Yersinia, and our practices are built around that.

SQF certified. Certified by the Safe Quality Food Institute — a rigorous standard recognised worldwide by retailers, brand owners and foodservice providers.
GMP certified, with a 100 percent superior rating under the FDA’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) programme.
Daily inbound inspection. Shipments arrive daily and every lot is given proper time for inspection and quality assessment before it moves. All quality teams are staffed and managed in-house.
Photo-logged receiving. Product is photographed as it is delivered and uploaded to our tracking system, so there is a visual record of condition on arrival.
RF-gun traceability. From the moment a package is unloaded it is tracked through our racking system, giving accurate inventory and full traceability.
HACCP-trained staff. Our quality-control team is trained in the seven HACCP principles: hazard analysis, identifying critical control points, determining critical limits, monitoring those points, establishing corrective actions, record-keeping and verification.
USDA-standard inspection. Our inspectors are trained to USDA Agricultural Marketing Service inspection standards.
Cold chain end to end. Over 60,000 square feet of temperature-controlled storage, plus a dedicated warehouse and repacking facility, and temperature-controlled trucks whose speed we monitor for driver and community safety.

More detail on our quality-control process and our facility.

Why Buyers Choose E. Armata

Four generations at the same market. E. Armata has traded at Hunts Point — and at the Washington Street Market before it — for over a century, and the family still runs the business: Chris and Paul Armata have been its sole owners since 1997. Our relationships with growers and shippers were built over decades, which is what lets us hold quality and supply when a season turns.

That continuity is the practical argument, not a sentimental one. Buying produce well is a relationship business: the grower who has a short crop calls the buyer he has known for twenty years first. Four generations of those relationships is why we can fill an order in a week when supply tightens, and why the quality in the box matches what was promised on the phone.

It also means the people you deal with are not going anywhere. Our sales team knows their customers’ businesses — what sells in a Bronx bodega is not what sells in a Midtown kitchen, and the order should reflect that.

Visit us at 114 NYC Terminal Market, Bronx, NY 10474, or call 718-991-5600 to speak with our sales team.

Produce Wholesaler and Distributor in New York City