Vegetable grower discusses expansion into a year-round program

With many customers expecting year-round fruit and vegetables, suppliers are continually looking to improve availability of produce. Many growers are also expanding their footprint so they can grow their produce in different climate zones and elevations. Fortune Growers have operations in Central Mexico, California and Canada and already have a number of products available all year. Their current Mexican season has faced some challenges but the company is confident about upcoming supply.

"Our Fall season campaign is about to commence but we are still closing out some of our summer season crops after some delays during the growing season," said Mark Sato, of Fortune Growers. "Our main growing region in Guanajuato in Mexico experienced a lot of rainfall during the summer which has delayed some of the carrots and broccoli. The rain saturated the fields and even getting to them for harvesting was a challenge. In recent weeks we have had drier weather and we're back on schedule now that the product is drying out."

While the rain has caused a delay with broccoli and carrots, drought conditions earlier in the season resulted in a bug infestation on the Brussels sprouts crop, as they were seeking out moisture. However, now that this situation has recovered, Sato said that they're seeing excellent conditions for the beginning of their Fall crop production.

"Because of the delays, we may experience a short term gap on carrot supplies as we had difficulty in planting the new season carrots," he continued. "This week, we have celery starting, but we are very cautious on the market on them at the moment. We are also seeing snow peas coming into production now. Volumes have been low but quality in both of them is very high. Lettuce continues to see high demand. A number of our customers have been pushing us for them, but we have had to hold back production as the ground dries out. The market on broccoli continues to be strong and now that the Maine season is done and Canada will be finished by the end of the month, we see a strong market moving forward. Production levels on our Mexico broccoli are picking up and we're happy to fill the gap from the drop in northeast production."

Sato noted that a number of their products are available all year round and they are looking to add to that from next year as they see good demand in the market. "We currently have carrots, cabbage, broccoli and cilantro as part of our year-round program," Sato said. "The market demanded year-round availability, so we have transitioned and found solutions to do so. For example, towards summer, we move production to higher elevations to mitigate the heat for some crops."

"From next year, we plan to make more items available year round," he added. "These include celery and Brussels sprouts. We continue to expand production but we implement it in a measured way in order to maintain quality and also not to flood the market. We always look to fill gaps and see potential in which crops will work at what times of the year."

For more information: 

Mark Sato 

Tel: 805-481-1055