(UPDATED COVERAGE Nov. 8) Calavo Growers Inc. has agreed to sell its 50% stake in Maui Fresh International LLC to San Rafael Distributing Inc. for $2.6 million.
Santa Paula, Calif.-based Calavo will gain about $600,000 on the Oct. 31 sale, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Calavo and Nogales, Ariz.-based San Rafael Distributing have jointly owned Maui Fresh International since 2006.
“The opportunity came about for me to buy the other 50% of Maui Fresh,” said Francisco Clouthier, owner of San Rafael Distributing. “Calavo’s interest in the L.A. terminal market changed. They bought Renaissance Food Group and they’re going toward consumer packaging and pre-cuts.”
A Calavo spokesman was not available for comment.
Maui Fresh distributes tropical fruits and other produce from the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market. In 2003 it became a division of Calavo, which acquired it for $4.5 million in stock.
In 2006 Maui Fresh and Platinum Produce, a division of San Rafael Distributing, formed a partnership that led to an expansion at the Los Angeles terminal market for Calavo’s avocados and Hawaiian papayas.
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