With great sadness, Baldor Specialty Foods shares that their Founding Director of Wholesale, Erwan Landivinec, has passed away at the age of 66, following a long and hard-fought illness.
Erwan's food career began many decades ago in his native France, just as he entered adulthood. After conscription in the French Navy, he began exporting and promoting produce (in particular, endive) for the French government as an alternative to further military service. He soon discovered a passion for sourcing unique items and exposing them to new audiences, and his facility with languages (including French, English, Italian, and Spanish) helped him enormously in this endeavor.
This expertise brought him across the pond to Merex Food Corporation, an importer and distributor serving retail and wholesale customers, based in Yonkers, NY, where he did similar work importing and promoting specialty produce from Europe and beyond. He was the first in the US to import now-common items like Belgian endive and French shallots.
© Baldor Specialty Foods
Erwan Landivinec.
Among the companies he sold to were Balducci's retail store and Baldor Specialty Foods, which is how he came to the attention of Baldor founder, Kevin Murphy. Kevin convinced Erwan to join Baldor in 2000 and gave him a platform to do what he did best. His colorful career included launching the Wholesale division of Baldor known as IPEX (International Produce Exchange), and this led to many more importing "firsts" like Italian radicchio, Cavaillon melons, Peruvian French beans, rambutan, and mangosteen, just to name a few. He later supervised Baldor's acquisition of his former employer, Merex.
Never content with good enough, he launched what became the import arm of both IPEX and Baldor, known as Global Agri, which served distributors outside of the regions where Baldor delivered, offering them access to the unique specialty items he was sourcing from around the world. He spread the impact of Baldor as far west as Chicago and as far south as Texas and Florida. He was also instrumental in developing our Urban Roots line of specialty vegetables.
After complicated health challenges motivated his retirement in 2023, Erwan moved back to his family home in Brittany, France, where he spent his final months watching the boats sail by from his front window, sipping rosé, and spending time with his loved ones. He is survived by his wife and daughter.
Erwan will be missed by all who had the fortune to meet him, and his memory will live on at Baldor, with his customers, and on menus across the US.
For more information:
Baldor Specialty Foods
www.baldorfood.com
