Access to the freshest of fresh produce, whether local or imported from Mexico, is just one advantage of being in the Rio Grande Valley. Another is centrality.
Being on the border and further east than ports of entry like Nogales, AZ, offers the benefit of being that much closer to markets in the Midwest and the Northeast.
GR Fresh, BB #:152629 which grows several varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and more across Mexico, has corporate headquarters in the state of Coahuila and a U.S. hub in McAllen. Ask Tony Incaviglia, vice president of sales and marketing, why the company chose the Valley.
“Servicing the Midwest and East out of Texas has a huge value overloading out of the West,” he replies, noting that the company ships out of McAllen 365 days a year. “We transition from growing area to growing area, depending on the weather and time of year, and as we transition, McAllen puts us closer to those markets.” He points to the new 120,000-square-foot warehouse the company is building to serve its growing customer base.
Aaron Acosta, corporate relations manager at Villita Avocados, Inc. BB #:324654 in Pharr, points to the collaborative attitude of local government toward business as a big draw. “The city of Pharr and its staff are just business friendly,” he says. “Over the last ten years, they have continuously invested in the infrastructure needed to ensure the businesses that feed America can operate, knowing they have the full backing of government leadership.”
Art Salinas, director of operations at Pharr-based Bonanza 2001, BB #:289197 which specializes in tomatoes and avocados, agrees that the Valley offers numerous perks, from location to livability. “There are jobs, opportunities, produce warehouses going up around me left and right,” he comments. “The culture is growing, retail is growing, and it’s a beautiful melting pot of different people. If I could change anything, it would be the weather.”
Plenty of challenges
No doubt about it: the weather is a big challenge, not as much in the Valley as in growing regions around Mexico.
According to Yasmani Garcia, head of sales at Sweet Seasons, LLC BB #:210074 in Hidalgo, natural challenges, including hurricanes and tropical storms, have been an issue for growers, noting that when it’s raining, the crop can’t be harvested.
A more pressing challenge for Garcia has been convincing growers to obtain certification. The company hired an advisor to consult, free of charge, with its growers in Mexico and remind them of the changes they need to implement to be certified. As he points out, his customers want everything to be certified, but the push to invest in certification and make the necessary changes isn’t part of the growing culture.
“In Mexico, there aren’t that many restrictions, and many of our growers also sell locally and don’t need certification,” he explains. “But if they want to sustain their export program, they need to be in line with everyone else.”
Armando Flores of Ace Customs Broker, Inc. BB #:170926 agrees that the weather definitely affects the avocado importers he works with, but the real surprise in 2019 was the unpredictability of growth and product. With prices unstable in Mexico and growers wanting more money, business was challenging.
“Produce was worse than the stock market,” he observes. “We would get really busy, then it would die down for a couple of weeks, then it would heat up again. Up and down, up and down. It wasn’t consistent at all.”
All true, according to Villita’s Acosta, mentioning a number of issues that cropped up, including driver shortages, a lack of diesel fuel, tariffs, and high prices. As he puts it, “2019 proved to be a challenging year, but [also] a testament to our resilience and ability to mitigate some of these variables,” he says. “I’m confident there’s nothing we can’t solve over a cup of coffee.”
This is multi-part feature adapted from the Rio Grande Valley Supplement in the January/February 2020 issue of Produce Blueprints.
