Building a one-stop avocado shop: Q&A with Frutura avocado whisperer Stephen Fink

So far 2023 has been a banner year for Frutura, a global sales and marketing company based in California’s Central Valley. In the first quarter of the year, the up-and-coming fresh produce marketer leveraged its strengths and subsidiaries to pen a Coca-Cola licensing agreement — no small feat.

Today, Frutura has confirmed an ambitious plan to break into avocados, marketing hass avocados year-round in North American under the Frutura brand. The program is slated to launch in the third quarter of 2023, with subsidiary grower, packer and distributor, Dayka & Hackett LLC leading the program and sourcing avocados from Frutura’s own groves in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia.

Frutura is also making sustainability strides in how it approaches its avocado acreage, prioritizing native timber in Mexico and Colombia, maintaining existing forests that are home to monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

The Packer spoke with Dayka & Hackett’s vice president of avocados and resident avocado whisperer, Stephen Fink, about the deal and how the two companies are leveraging his rich avocado expertise, relationships and industry knowledge to build a vertically integrated avocado program from the ground up.

Edited for length and clarity.  

The Packer: Since recently joining Dayka & Hackett LLC in August 2022, how would you describe your role as VP of avocados?

Fink: I was brought on to start the avocado program for Dayka & Hackett and market the fruit that Futura has been growing for the last four to five years, even before Frutura was established. The role is working off Dayka & Hackett’s existing customer base and delivering the customer service that they've brought to the table for the last 20 years. They brought me to expand that into a new commodity — avocados.

Did you know when you came in with Dayka & Hackett last fall that you'd be spearheading this entry into the avocado marketing?

I did. The initial interviews with the leadership team Dayka & Hackett and Frutura was, "Hey, you're going to be coming in and it's basically yours to grow and to develop as you see fit."

You know, they've been great and given me all the access and tools that I need but also let me use my experience in this industry to start developing this what works into our model over at Frutura.

Frutura CEO David Krause mentioned in a recent news release that Frutura is "pushing to accelerate volume by adding significant plantings, and by building relationships with several third party growers of premium avocados ... " Can you tell me more about this growth plan?

When I came on for Frutura, we had land in Colombia, and in Colombia we continue to plant young trees. We're continuing to develop the orchard and plant over there and then also in Jalisco, Mexico.

We've been developing and planting the orchard in Jalisco for the past two to three years. The fruit is finally coming into harvestable size, and we're getting a good harvest. That's where the growth is going to come from — some of these young trees that are now starting to yield and bear fruit.

In addition, we also have third-party growers that we work closely with in other parts of the world. These growers grow grapes or citrus for us, on the other commodities that take up cells. And they have been, very helpful in wanting to join with us and provide avocados for our portfolio.

Can you share with me how this avocado deal fits into the larger strategy for Dayka & Hackett?

Dayka & Hackett are very strong with grapes, citrus and mangoes. We also have a couple other items that are seasonal that we do bring in.

But it's really a one-stop shop for customers, right? How can I how build my truck? You know, save on freight, really maximize my costs. Bringing avocados into the mix for Dayka & Hackett really allows them to do that.

Over the last 15 years in retail, avocados have been one of the largest growth items in the retail space. So, it’s giving the customer another added benefit on margin but offering a way where we can hopefully give them a value by putting grapes, citrus and other items on the truck to fulfill their truck and save them costs down the road.

What an amazing program to build like straight out of the gate. What aspect of the avocado program are you most excited about?

Having your hands on every piece of the pie and to be able to start something from the ground up is very exciting. Also, having just the free range from leadership — and that's not only Dayka & Hackett, but that's Frutura as well — to really allow me to create what I think will work through all our visions.

And then working with the Frutura companies, those in Colombia, Peru, Chile and Mexico, and being able to really tie a full program together and benefiting the customer at the end of the day. It's been a fun experience.

Do you see any challenges ahead?

There's always challenges for entry into a new space. You have existing competition that has done it right for a very long time. As we get going, there's distribution challenges — where are we going to ship out of, we're trying we're utilizing our existing footprint as Dayka & Hackett but noticing that avocados are different from other commodities — so we're having to tweak the way we do things a little bit. But overall, the advantages outweigh the challenges that we have at this point.

What is the main message you’d like to share with the fresh produce industry today?

The biggest thing is there's a lot of different brands and competitors in the avocado space. We want to do something different, set ourselves apart and really be able to deliver the customer service that people have come to expect from Dayka & Hackett on the grape and citrus side.

So, while we're new in the avocado space as Dayka & Hackett, we have a lot of experience and knowledge in produce, and we also have a lot of experience and knowledge in avocados with our team. We’re in this for a long run.

We’ll have 52 weeks supply of conventional and organic. We want to do this the right way and make sure that we can deliver the customers everything they're looking for. It will be a one-stop shop for avocados.