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Grande Output

How business in this Texas valley is booming despite setbacks
MS_Grande Output

Surrounding growth
The impetus has led to a hustle and bustle of new business in town. From the state-of-the-art, multimillion-dollar facilities to others expanding or improving existing structures, Incaviglia takes it in stride.

“There are more people setting up shop here, but there are also more people looking to buy here,” he explains. “I always feel that competition is a healthy thing—if there are more people here with more product available, so much the better.”

FRESH FORUM
What is your biggest (business) fear going into 2018?

Victor Dominguez, Dominguez Fresh Produce
My biggest concern is if Trump shuts down NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement]. Shutting it down would be a total disaster; the United States would find itself very short on produce, and it would be terrible for businesses on this side of the border.

Richard Ruiz, Ruiz Sales
Big challenges and changes in the retail business as Amazon/Whole Foods now sells produce through high technology at a reduced price—this will challenge all of the produce industry.

Tony Incaviglia, GR Fresh
My biggest concern is NAFTA and how it could affect us, not just the produce industry but also vehicles, meat, clothing, and more. It would be crazy to pull out of it… When you think of all the items we import from Mexico, it would put a lot of people in harm’s way.

Adam Cooper, Wonderful Company
We work very closely with the industry to prevent diseases like HLB (citrus greening) and canker from spreading… Although the disease is present in Southern California, it is not in Central California, where our mandarins are grown. The situation in Texas is more advanced than California, but there has been no real commercial impact to date.

Victor Dominguez, owner and founder of Dominguez Fresh Produce LLC on the McAllen terminal market, is also impressed with the availability of cold storage and its ability to draw new players to the vicinity. “There’s a lot more movement than three or four years ago, and much more cold storage now,” he says. “It has definitely increased the competition.”

A prime factor in his success, according to Dominguez, is proximity. “If a client cancels an order, we can find another client to take the order since we’re on the border,” he relates. “And if a product doesn’t work, we can easily return it to Mexico.”

Abundant Retail
The more-is-better adage can be applied to the retail grocery sector in the Rio Grande region as well. While some areas of the Valley were once considered food deserts—lacking adequate access to supermarkets or farmers’ markets—much has changed over the past few years.

Researchers at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley say major retailers have been expanding into the region, as sales in eight of the region’s cities—McAllen, Brownsville, Harlingen, Edinburg, Pharr, Weslaco, Mission, and Mercedes—are expected to jump by nearly $13.7 billion between now and 2030.

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