We are a multinational Group based on several companies, together we create the most efficient network of production, importation and distribution of tropical fruits and vegetables from Central and South America.
Currently we have more than 40 years of operation distributing fresh produce in the East Coast as well as developing foreign farms and packing houses to our standards and needs in partnership with our suppliers.
The quality and safety of our products is guaranteed, as our commitment to achieve and surpass market requirements is part of our company policy. Exp Group LLC is SQF code for Storage and Distribution v9.0 certified, having implemented a robust food safety program from domestic and foreign farms up to our warehouse in NJ.
In 1964, Pedro Llaneza immigrated from Cuba to the United States with a robust passion for the exportation of fruits and vegetables. Knowing such exportation was not possible with the temperate climates in the U.S, he took his entrepreneurial skills to Santiago, Dominican Republic and founded Llaneza and Company.
As the exportation of Dominican commodities were on, he wanted a packaging label to carry notoriety, thus naming his product line after his high school sweetheart, Rosita. In 1967, the Rosita Brand was officially created as he would link up with Exp Group’s future founder, Emil Serafino.
At age 17, Emil Serafino was ambitious and had an entrepreneurial fervor founding his first company, V&E Fruits in Brooklyn, New York. The firebrand Sicilian, would then move on from V&E Fruits and took his talents to the Brooklyn Terminal Market in 1982, establishing his second business, Global Tropical. In the 1980s and 90s, Serafino and Llaneza would continue expanding the Rosita Brand label taking the brand to new heights expanding its distribution across the eastern coastline of the U.S.
Serafino continued to push the envelope at the start of the millennium, buying out Pedro Llaneza from his successful exportation business in the Dominican Republic. As a result, Exportadora Serafino was born with youthful and vibrant leadership. The business would be taken to new heights which would supplement the growth of the company we now see today, Exp. Group.
Our exportation company located in Santiago, Dominican Republic exclusively exports our tropical produce line to our parent company in North Bergen, NJ. These products include: Aloe Vera, Yautia, Malanga, Avocados, Sweet Lemons, Sour Oranges, Asito, Hot Peppers, Dry Coconuts and so much more! Please look for our Rosita/Serafino brand which is the official label of Exp. Serafino Inc.
Located in North Bergen, NJ, our banana ripening company uses the finest equipment and technology from Thermal Technologies Inc. Currently we have 35 ripening rooms on-site which give us the capability to ripen 35 rooms and 35,000 bananas per cycle. Using our Bonita, Selvática and Rosita brands; plus Dole and Chiquita labels, we provide our customers with perfectly ripened produce to satisfy their needs.
Our logistics company supports and assists our multistate operation across the Northeast providing the most convenient and reliable service to our customers. With our state-of-the-art Volvo, International and Freightliner trucks we pride ourselves on having the best equipment in the logistics industry.
Our 35 acre, 293,000 square foot facility located on 2500 83rd Street North Bergen, NJ is the home of Exp. Group. LLC, Exp. Logistics LLC and Exp. Banana LLC. Also, it is the home of 23 other tenants providing them with exclusive access to New York City and the rest of the Northeast corridor.
Green bananas are firmer than yellow bananas. Their texture has sometimes been described as waxy. Composition. Green bananas are higher in starches. As bananas ripen and turn yellow, the starches transform into sugars.
Among other things, they may boost digestive and heart health due to their fiber and antioxidant content. They may even aid weight loss, as they're relatively low-calorie and nutrient-dense. Ripe bananas are a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Green plantains are distinguished by their age. They are simply the younger immature stage of the fruit. Their peel is thin and they have a very firm and starchy textured, lean-flavored flesh due to their very low sugar content.
Ripe plantain are mature fruit. They are best when it's mostly black with a little yellow. Although completely black plantains are still good to eat, they are a little too soft, making them difficult to prepare.
Tropical avocados are a large, pear-shaped fruit with skin that remains green even when ripe. Because of this characteristic they are also known as green-skin avocados.
The Hass avocado is known for its leathery fairly thick skin that turns near black when fully ripe. The flesh closest to the skin is a lush pale lime green color and as it nears the central pit it develops a rich creamy yellow tone and softer, oil rich texture.
Maradol papayas are a large variety with an oval, somewhat irregular shape. They have vibrant dark green skins that turn yellow when the fruit is ripe, and sweet, golden to salmon-colored flesh that has a slight musky scent. They have small, round, shiny, edible black seeds.
The Francis mango is a rich, sweet flavor that can be stronger than other mango varieties. This mango's sweetness has some notes of spice that make eating it a unique sensory experience.
Likely the Tommy Atkins variety, They are a medium to large sized mango variety. They are broadly oval shaped with a green skin almost always covered with a dark red blush with occasional orange or yellow accents.
Sour oranges are small to medium in size, averaging 7-8 centimeters in diameter, and are round to oval in shape. Underneath the skin, the pale orange flesh is firm. With maturity, the center of the flesh may also become hollow.
Persian limes are also known as Tahiti limes. This variety has unknown origins but is suspected to be a hybrid of the Mexican lime and citron. The fruit is oval-shaped, about the same size as a lemon, with a vivid green peel.
A large oblong or roundish fruit with a hard green or white rind often striped or variegated, a sweet watery red pulp, and usually many seeds. It is a very refreshing food that supplies very few calories.
A sweet tropical fruit with a tough leathery skin and spiky leaves on top. The word pineapple was first used to mean "pine cone," and the fruit was given this name because of its (slight) resemblance to a large pine cone.
A coconut is a large, nut-like fruit that grows high in trees. Coconuts have very hard shells and sweet, white flesh inside. Coconuts are large brown balls that must be cut or sawed open — inside the shell is the coconut meat, and the sweet and clear coconut water.
Calabaza, also known as the West Indian Pumpkin, is a type of pumpkin-like squash with: Round, spherical or pear shapes. Variety of sizes. Green to orange colors. Solid, striped or speckled appearance.
Aloe vera, sometimes described as a “wonder plant,” is a short-stemmed shrub. Aloe is a genus that contains more than 500 species of flowering succulent plants.
Rulo is very much like a Platano (Musa paradisiaca, Musa cavendishii), but the fruit is a little wider in size, softer to touch and paler in color.
The lemon is a round, slightly elongated fruit, it has a strong and resistant skin, with an intense bright yellow colour when it is totaly ripe, giving off a special aroma when it is cut. The pulp is pale yellow, juicy and acid, divided in gores.
Oranges are round orange-coloured fruit that grow on a tree which can reach 10 metres (33 ft) high. Orange trees have dark green shiny leaves and small white flowers with five petals. The flowers smell very sweet which attracts many bees. An orange has a tough shiny orange skin that holds acid in outside layer.
On the inside, white dragon fruit looks almost identical to the yellow variety having white flesh that is studded with tiny edible black seeds that add a bit of crunch and texture, similar to a kiwi. The flavor is mild, sweet, refreshing and similar to a mixture of pear and kiwi.
The sweetest of all the dragon fruit varieties, has a bright yellow skin with smooth curved spines on the outside and a translucent white flesh on the inside with slightly larger but fewer edible seeds than the pink-skinned varieties.
Mamey sapote is a medium to large fruit, averaging 8 to 25 centimeters in length and 6 to 10 centimeters in diameter, and has a round, oval, to oblong shape, sometimes with tapered, pointed ends. The skin is thick, semi-rough, and light to dark brown with a textured, scruffy, and sandpaper feel.
Pepino melons are an oval-shaped fruit with smooth, firm skin that is yellow with purple stripes when ripe. The flavor is mildly sweet with hints of banana and pear, with a sweet aroma. The entire fruit is edible, including the skin and seeds. It can be eaten out of hand or used in sauces, salads or desserts.
Star fruit — or carambola — is a sweet and sour fruit that has the shape of a five-point star. The star fruit is yellow or green in color.
This fruit is eaten raw, with spoon or in fruit salads. It is also used to flavor some cocktails and punches, as well as in juices, milkshakes, sherbets, custard and ice creams.
Thai guava is mildly sweet with a crunchy texture. This fruit is usually eaten unripe and raw. A large fruit, often the size of a grapefruit, its white flesh, numerous seeds, and green bumpy peel, are all edible. ... The fruit is usually eaten unripe. Ripening: Ready to eat, store at room temperature.
Herbaceous, generally biennial plant of the Apiaceae family that produces an edible taproot. Among common varieties root shapes range from globular to long, with lower ends blunt to pointed.
Culantro is an herb that has a similar aroma and flavor to cilantro, but they are not the same plant. It has long, serrated leaves and looks a bit like long-leafed lettuce.
Ginger, Zingiber officinale, is an erect, herbaceous perennial plant in the family Zingiberaceae grown for its edible rhizome (underground stem) which is widely used as a spice. The rhizome is brown, with a corky outer layer and pale-yellow scented center.
Garlic, Allium sativum, is a an herbaceous, annual, bulbous plant in the family Amaryllidaceae grown for its pungent, edible bulb of the same name. They have a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking.
Meet the aji dulce, also known as ajicito or aji cachucha. This habanero look-alike packs a sweet and smoky taste with very little (if any) perceptible heat. It's perfect for mild salsas, sauces, and a must for Caribbean cooking, especially Cuban and Venezuelan cuisine.
Small and usually thin-walled capsicum fruits of marked pungency, well rounded flavor profile green, orange and red are indicative of their stage.
A winter squash (Curcubita maxima) of Japanese origin that is round with somewhat flattened top and bottom, typically dark green skin usually streaked or mottled with pale green, and yellowish-orange sweet flesh Scoop the squash from its rind.
A Roma tomato is a paste tomato and generally has a thicker fruit wall, fewer seeds and a denser but grainier flesh. Roma tomatoes tend to be oblong in shape and heavy for their size. They also tend to be more firm than a non-Roma tomato.
Chayote (Sechium edule) is a type of squash that belongs to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae. It originally hails from central Mexico and various parts of Latin America but is now grown all over the world. It's also known as mirliton squash or chocho.
An onion is a round vegetable with a brown skin that grows underground. It has many white layers on its inside which have a strong, sharp smell and taste.
Asparagus officinalis, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the family Asparagaceae which is grown for its young shoots, or spears, which are eaten as a vegetable. The asparagus plant is tall with scale like leaves emerging from the underground stem (rhizome) and has stout stems and feathery foliage.
Yellow yam, also known as Jamaican yam or Guinea yam, is a tropical root vegetable that originated in Africa and spread to the Caribbean by way of slaves.
Malanga coco, also sometimes known as taro, is a root vegetable that resembles a yam and tastes similar to a potato with a sweet, nutty flavor. It can be prepared like you would a traditional potato, added to curries and stews, and also fried to make chips.
Batata, the word for sweet potato in many languages, including Egyptian Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish. A type of tropical sweet potato, Batatas edulis, somewhat dry and delicate in flavor.
Yampi roots are small to medium in size, averaging 15-20 centimeters in length and 6-8 centimeters in diameter, and are elongated, cylindrical, and irregularly-shaped tubers slightly tapering at one end.
The starchy flesh of the yuca root is a light white or cream color with a grainy texture similar to potatoes. The meaty flesh is often described as having a mild, sweet, somewhat nutty taste.
Yautia root has an elongated, tapered shape with one large bulbous end. The White Yautia root’s tough brown to orange skin has a rough and uneven texture covered with many bumps and hair. The flesh of this corm is white or light yellow and has a crisp and smooth texture.
Shaped like a long sweet potato, the flesh of Name is creamy or yellow in color while its skin can be light brown, dark brown, or tan. Its flavor is somewhat nutty with a slightly chewy texture similar to a potato.
The potato is one of some 150 tuber-bearing species of the genus Solanum (a tuber is the swollen end of an underground stem).
Eddoes have a light crumbly texture with a slightly sweet flavor, somewhat like a potato. Like a potato, eddos can be roasted, fried or boiled.
Thyme is a low growing (6-12 inches tall) to almost prostrate, wiry stemmed perennial. Stems are stiff and woody and leaves are small, oval and gray-green in color. Flowers can be white to lilac and are in small clusters. Thyme is highly aromatic with a hint of clove and mint fragrance.
Exp Group LLC s commitment to food safety and quality is what allows us to carry out a successful operation when sourcing, storing and delivering all commodities to all of our customers. The following have been implemented in compliance with industry and government requirements:
Exp Group is certified under SQF Edition 9 for Food Storage and Distribution facilities. Our company is audited once a year by our certification body, be it announced or unannounced, we are always ready.
Records and specific food safety information is available to any entity interested in doing business with us. We are devoted to succeed in the industry providing the highest quality and safe foods.
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