Divine Flavor and veteran grower expand organic bell pepper program into summer
Nogales, Ariz.-based Divine Flavor has announced its new project of summer organic bell peppers in Jalisco, Mexico.
The program, several years in the making, will be adding another of the company’s staple items to its year-round product list, according to a news release.
Continuing from its established roots in Sinaloa, Mexico, with veteran producer Hortifresh, the company will receive its first shipments of organic bell peppers later in August out of central Mexico, according to the release.
Hortifresh, originally based out of Sinaloa, Mexico, is Divine Flavor’s largest grower of organic colored bell peppers and mini peppers, the release said.
The organic-colored bell peppers and mini peppers are produced primarily in hydroponics greenhouses during the west Mexico season. After many years of successful results with the organic bell pepper programs in Sinaloa, the companies will now have their program in Jalisco to bridge the gap for when Sinaloa starts again in the late fall, the release said.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our company, as this will highly contribute to our year-round offerings of one of our strongest veg commodities,” Michael DuPuis, public relations manager of Divine Flavor, said in the release. “Hortifresh is a top-notch agricultural company who’ve specialized in the pepper category. Their ability to establish operations in a new area of Mexico and produce at the caliber they’re known for is a major achievement for both their farm, and ultimately, our programs we have with our customers.”
The new operation in Jalisco, occupying close to 50 acres, has already been in production for three years producing conventional bell peppers, while the farm engineers at Hortifresh have been laying the groundwork for organic production, according to the release. This season, Hortifresh will begin 25 additional acres of organic bell peppers and with the hopes of expanding and adding organic mini peppers in the coming seasons, which the release said is similar to what is grown at its Sinaloa location.
Leading the charge for Hortifresh and its new facilities in Jalisco is Owner and CEO Ernesto Urtusuastegui, who is part of the company’s third-generation family business, according to the release. Urtusuastegui has been operating the company since the early 2000s and one of the original grower partners to the Divine Flavor group. Since then, Hortifresh and Divine Flavor have expanded their bell pepper programs which service retail chains across the U.S. and Canada.
“All the years being with Divine Flavor comes down to results and trust,” Urtusuastegui said in the release. “We are a single team with a single goal and that is to produce and sell the best quality bell peppers to our customers. Now, we are able to do this on a year-round basis, both with our conventional and our organic bell peppers. It’s been a dream come true.”
Although the first boxes of organic peppers are on the way, Urtusuastegui said in the release that the process leading up to this project was quite difficult and required waiting for the right moment.
“This is a project many years in the making between Divine Flavor and Hortifresh,” Urtusuastegui said in the release. “We needed to be responsible growers and make sure we would be able to produce the same great quality products we already grow in Sinaloa. The same products the customers already expect from Divine Flavor.”
Urtusuastegui mentioned the geographical region in Jalisco is quite different than the areas where its Sinaloa facilities are located. That fact, he said in the release, required their teams to fully analyze all the variables to grow at the level they’ve been known for during its tenure with Divine Flavor.
Jalisco has been in production since June and the season will stretch until December once west Mexico begins, according to the release.
