LI Cauliflower Association opens doors to new retail showroom

When the Long Island Cauliflower Association was founded in 1901, it had only one mission: to sell cauliflower. But in today’s day and age, when the future of farming is uncertain, CEO John Bokina Jr. says that the company’s direction needs to evolve alongside the agriculture industry.

For LICA, that means an expanded line of consumer retail products, which will be featured in their brand new showroom that opened earlier this week.

Construction on the showroom began in December 2013, just after Christmas, when contractors tore down an old warehouse that stood next to the main building on LICA’s Marcy Avenue property. In its place, they built a new structure that houses the showroom.

“It’s been a long project, but it will be well worth it when it’s done,” said Bokina, who has been in charge of the organization since May 2011.

The demolished warehouse was being used mainly for storage purposes, but LICA’s stock of more than 8,000 product lines had outgrown the space. The new showroom is a 1100-square-foot facility, and will feature “unique” retail products, according to Bokina, who said there would even be a “Grown on Long Island” section.

“We’re not sure what exactly that will encompass yet, it’s still in development. It’ll be a clothing line, candles — nifty things that are unique to Long Island and its farmers,” Bokina said.

Bokina hopes that the showroom will allow LICA to attract a whole new market to its business.

“A lot of people don’t realize you can walk in here and buy things other than lawn care or fertilizer. We’re really hoping this showroom will change that,” he said.

The new showroom will also help LICA by smoothing over bumps in the road during the off season, when there’s a down cycle or a decrease in business. “We want to always be able to provide our customers with the best service, and we think this is going to help a lot with giving us the means to do that,” said Bokina.

This change is just one of many ways that LICA has evolved since it was founded in 1901 as an organization of farmers trying to market and sell cauliflower (see a full history here). But it is also one of many steps that LICA expects to have to take in the future in order to keep up with a market that is constantly changing and a future that is uncertain.

“It’s hard to say where farming is going to be in five, seven, ten years,” Bokina said. “We want to be ready for whatever changes may come, and that’s why we’re investing the money here, in this property.”

Currently LICA provides landscaping and lawn-care services to a wide variety of customers, including school districts, Bethpage Ballpark (home of the Long Island Ducks), college campuses, farms, vineyards and homeowners. It also provides services for the growers of Long Island, from potato farmers to landscapers. According to their website, LICA is the last remaining full-service farm supply company on Long Island.

“We do it all,” said Bokina.

As for what the future of agriculture on Long Island might look like, Bokina wasn’t sure.

“I think it’s going to be a lot of smaller farms. We’ll have to wait and see what those niche markets want, and once we know we will do our best to provide for them. Our goal is to serve agriculture, whatever it looks like.”

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
Click thumbnails to enlarge images
{gallery}2014/slideshows/2014_0617_lica{/gallery}