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Homegrown Organic Farms, a grower-shipper-marketer of organic California and Oregon-grown fruit and vegetables since 1998, is importing produce from Mexico and South America.
“To start, we’ll be bringing in avocados from Mexico for the winter and some blueberries out of Chile,” said Scott Mabs, director of marketing.
The imported produce will be packed under a new label, Bella Terra Organics.
The move to import organic fresh produce was more than a year in planning at Porterville, Calif.-based Homegrown Organic Farms, Mabs said.
The company will be able to offer its customers extended and counter season shipping periods of organic produce and new fruit offerings that are available only through importing, he said.
The imported produce will increase annual volume for Homegrown Organic Farms, but Mabs said the extent of the increase is uncertain.
“It’s not our vision to bring gobs of organic product and to oversupply demand,” Mabs said. “It will be more of building demand and then meeting that demand — keeping things in balance.”
Another commodity from Mexico on the Homegrown import calendar is limes, which Mabs said the company plans to import limes from Mexico “in the not-too-distant future.”
Peter France, who oversees the company’s Southern California quality control and field operations, heads up the import program from the field side, Mabs said, while Chad Hansen, sales/commodity manager, will add the imported produce to his domestic sales duties.
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Comments (5)
Leave a commentrobi
Report Abusehow can this be organic when its coming from countries with literally no pestiside regualions!
francisco h lohr
Report AbuseHere at hermosillo MEXICO , we the farmers come back to our homes and read THE PACKER in our computers, we have PRIMUS LABS and several others. WE read and study FDA news. and for sure we do not eat Cantaloupes from Colorado.
JOEL KAUFMAN
Report AbuseHOW CAN YOU NOT USE BIODIEGRADABLE PACKAGING FOR ORGANIC PRODUCTS
Tom Denison
Report AbuseHow deceptive to call yourself Homegrown and sell produce from the other side of the world.
Randy
Report AbuseRobi: After visiting hundreds of farms in Latin America, including over 300 days on the ground, and as an organic importer and 18 years in the dirt as a certified organic grower here, the standards for organic are just as meaningful as in the U.S., inspections are tougher, unannounced, and more frequent. Food safety standards are much higher, with all farms having to have independent international food safety certification. Generally, agriculture is far less intense than in California, and far more people are either certified, or can't afford chemicals. There's over 200,000 certified organic farms in Mexico and Peru alone - mostly small family operations.....and Tom, hi my friend. I think I read above that Homegrown (which is a brand name for a grower operated marketing company) is going to run their import program under a different label (Bella Terra) so there isn't any confusion. .