It may be the middle of winter, but plenty of fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables from Mexico are crossing into the U.S. through Nogales, Ariz.
“We’re coming out of the dead of winter,” said Chris Ciruli, partner at Ciruli Bros. LLC, Rio Rico, Ariz. “We will be peaking on our spring Culiacan crops that will consist primarily of eggplant, cucumbers and bell peppers.”
Peak production will be during February and March.
Everything should be in good supply, he said, except green and yellow zucchini, which has been held back by cool temperatures but should recover by March.
The company’s Champagne mango program will start the first week of March out of Chiapas in southern Mexico with heavier production by mid-March. Round mangoes likely will kick off the first week of April, Ciruli said.
Ciruli Bros. is going through a packaging changeover.
“We’re rebranding everything into some of our retro farm labels,” Ciruli said. “We’re putting [product] into a Golden West label that we haven’t done in quite a while.”
The program will include eggplant, bell peppers and cucumbers.
Rio Rico-based IPR Fresh is in the middle of its main season with good volume of colored and green bell peppers, said Jose Luis Obregon, president.
The company also reports excellent quality on some Persian and European cucumbers. IPR Fresh offers organic versions of all of its conventional items, Obregon said.
Volume will be up this year because of some new plantings, increased consumption and an expanding customer base, Obregon said.
Recent winter demand was a bit slow, however, because an Arctic blast of cold weather in the U.S. was keeping consumers from restocking their kitchens, he said.
Rio Rico-based Rich River Produce LLC is filling its year-old warehouse with items like chili peppers, cucumbers, bell peppers, eggplant and roma tomatoes, said Edgar Duarte, sales manager.
The company got an early start in mid-October thanks to some good growing weather and a new grower in Chihuahua who decided to start shipping through Nogales, Duarte said.
Quality has been good, but markets are not so good.
“We’ve been seeing a pretty low market on most items for almost two months,” he said.
The slowdown is the result of a number of factors, Duarte said, including a flagging U.S. economy and a drop in production in Mexico.
Prices and sales are slow in Mexico as well, he said.
Duarte said he was disappointed by the lack of support from some retailers who, in the past, would work with shippers and set aggressive pricing through sales and specials to move more product, he said.
“You’re not seeing the lower prices on wholesale trickling down to the supermarket,” Duarte said.
Nogales-based Covilli Brand Organics ships a variety of organic items and is expanding its Brussels sprouts program to year-round starting this spring, said Alejandro Madrigal, president. Overall quality has been good this winter, he said.
“Despite the recent cold snaps, which have delayed open field crops such as squash, overall weather conditions have been favorable,” Madrigal said.
“We are seeing bigger sizing in all winter squash varieties,” he added.
Though just a small program, dragon fruit, the company’s “most exotic commodity,” has just completed its fourth export season and continues to expand, Madrigal said.
Focus continues to be on high Brix levels, high-color varieties and increasing plantings, he said.
Covilli’s dragon fruit season runs from June to December.
During the spring, Nogales-based Divine Flavor LLC will focus on its core vegetable commodities such as conventional and organic bell peppers, mini peppers, cucumbers and grape, roma and beefsteak tomatoes, said Michael DuPuis, quality assurance and public relations manager.
“We also offer yellow squash/zucchini, as well as all melons during late spring,” he said.
Divine Flavor is the only grower to offer the hami melon, which is a sweeter version of the cantaloupe, DuPuis said.
“We also offer grapes from South America until the Jalisco program begins in April,” he said.
Weather has been better this year compared to 2024, with no heavy rains or hurricanes impacting growing conditions, DuPuis said.
Quality is much better as well, with all signs pointing to having a more “traditional” season in terms of volume and production, he said.
