Markon is an alliance of seven independent foodservice companies located across the United States and Canada. We leverage our pricing power while delivering a dependable supply of the highest quality produce available.

Looking for contract(s) tailored specifically to your business? No problem! Markon will help you navigate the pros and cons of contracting — the why, where, and when — by item and by season. We offer standardized contracts that have been designed to maximize savings, and then customize them to your unique needs.

No matter where you are located, Markon is nearby. With member-distributor warehouses throughout the U.S. and Canada, our comprehensive coverage allows us to minimize deliveries and increase drop sizes to everyone’s benefit (decreased invoice fees, lower transportation costs, reduced emissions, and smaller carbon footprints).

Your best interests are at the core of our mission. Since opening our doors in 1985, Markon has been a trail-blazer in the food safety arena. Markon was the first to develop a measurable safety program, the first to write detailed specifications, and the first to implement regular inspections.

We continue to lead the foodservice industry by offering our 5-Star Food Safety® Program, a comprehensive plan addressing safety at five critical points:

• Fields
• Grower/Shipping Facilities
• Transportation
• Distributor Warehouses
• Your Kitchen

Markon’s propriety brands offer MUA operators two distinct advantages: consistent quality and nationwide traceability. Available in all categories and at all price points, Markon brands have an unparalleled track record for quality. And, in the unlikely event of a food-borne illness associated with fresh produce, our national account customers can isolate and/or withdraw 80% or more of all fresh produce supplies with a single telephone call to Markon.

• Markon First Crop (MFC): Markon’s signature brand of whole fruits and vegetables.
  • Markon Best Available (MBA): Packed when supplies fall below MFC specs (MBA is not a brand on its own but is a substitute for MFC when specs cannot be met.)
• Ready-Set-Serve (RSS): A foodservice first! Pre-cut produce available in a variety of cuts and pack sizes.
• Markon Essentials (ESS): Our value brand of kitchen essentials. The main focus is value, yet we pack quality, food safety, sustainability, and consistency in every case.

We work diligently to reduce the chances of a food safety outbreak—but in the event one occurs, Markon’s trace back and recall capabilities will help protect and preserve your good name.

• Our trace back system allows us to follow MFC, RSS, and ESS brand products back to the exact grower-shipper, packing house, and even the field of origin.
• In the unlikely event of a food-borne illness associated with fresh produce, all other products sourced from the same origin can be readily identified and withdrawn from the market.

To provide you with real-time information about the fresh produce you serve, Markon gets our Boots in the Field® to assess and deliver the facts. Our extensive field and facility presence is one of the most critical steps Markon takes to ensure the safety and high quality of our fresh fruit and vegetable products.

• Markon inspectors walk our growers’ fields six days a week, checking product quality, size, and weight specifications, growing conditions, weather patterns, worker welfare, and overall sanitation.
• In-house inspectors also visit cold rooms to monitor post-harvest storage temperatures; processing plants to review critical-control points; and, shipping facilities to oversee loading.
   

Like many of our customers, Markon is mindful of the produce and foodservice industries’ impact on our eco-system and communities.

• Practices such as crop rotation, energy conservation, waste and water reduction, and recycling are standard operating procedures for Markon and our grower-partners.
• Our member distributors are taking action by implementing greener modes of delivery, reducing production and transportation emissions, decreasing shipping mileage through detailed delivery routes, increasing supplies of organic and free-trade products, and contributing excess product to food banks and other non-profit organizations.
• As a founding member of the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, Markon has supported a rigorous, multi-stakeholder effort which recently yielded the produce industry’s first first-ever suite of data-driven tools to measure on-farm performance.

Markon is more than a supply source. To keep you educated about the myriad elements that affect the produce industry, we distribute an extensive library of informative reports on a regular basis.

• Weekly Fresh Crop report
• Twice monthly Specialty Produce report
• Bimonthly Trends report
• Quarterly In Season report
• Periodic Markon communications
• As introduced New Product information
• Markon Updates, From the Fields emails, and YouTube videos