About Karsten · Family business since 1955
What began with
one bunch,
became a family.
Karsten is an Amsterdam family business, founded in 1955 and now a household name on the Amsterdam market. We import and distribute exotic vegetables, fruit and plantains, with the care of a vegetable specialist and the scale of a wholesaler.
1
Family business
3
Generations
70+
Years of experience
9
Countries of origin
Seventy years in four chapters.
1955
The Market
Cees Karsten starts on the Amsterdam market with one stall and one idea: there should be a place for the vegetables the Surinamese kitchen needs. Plantain, yard-long bean, madam Jeannette: strange back then, indispensable today.
1985
The Second Generation
Son Wim joins and expands the range. Asian imports come in: kecap, sambal, jasmine rice. What was a market stall becomes a wholesaler. The first fixed delivery routes to Amsterdam's tokos are planned.
2005
Own Ripening Cells
Karsten invests in its own ripening cells for bananas. No longer dependent on whatever the containers happen to do, but taking charge ourselves of the transition from green to gold.
Now
The Next Step
At the Food Center. Forty pallets per week. Nine countries of origin. Sixty-three top brands. A fixed route through Amsterdam and the whole of the Netherlands.
We don't ripen what the container happens to do,
we ripen what the customer expects on the phone.
Wim Karsten · Owner
We supply to
- Vegetable specialists
- Tokos and Asian shops
- Supermarkets
- Hospitality
- Street trade
- Fellow wholesalers
- Exporters
- Retail chains
Our four pillars
One company, four disciplines.
Import
Fixed lines with growers and cooperatives in Colombia, Thailand, Indonesia and six other countries of origin. What grows well, we collect ourselves.
Wholesale
For tokos, vegetable specialists, hospitality, fellow wholesalers and exporters. One counter, sixty-three brands, fresh and frozen.
Transport
Our own refrigerated vans for the fixed route through Amsterdam and the whole of the Netherlands; for export to the EU we work with fixed transport partners. Early morning, guaranteed.
Family
A family business with short lines. Personal service, no awkward fuss with emails, and when it's needed we carry the boxes right into the car.
Come by at the Food Center.
Food Center Amsterdam · Centrale Groothandelsmarkt 116, 1051 LJ Amsterdam