Mexican garlic grower-exporter Los Rancheros is refocusing its core business on the US market while launching new lines of carrots, broccoli and bell peppers.
For three generations Los Rancheros has sent its produce around the world – to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe and South Africa – and earned Mexican garlic a reputation for high quality.
But with the worldwide financial crisis hitting Europe as hard as anywhere, managing director Sergio Narváez Avila told Americafruit that the grower-exporter has redoubled its focus on the North American markets close to home.
In April the group opened an office in McAllen, Texas, from where Lourdes Narváez co-ordinates the distribution not only of Los Rancheros’ own production, but also that of other Mexican garlic growers.
Its own production stretches to 4,000ha, of which around 40 per cent is usually exported.
In Los Rancheros’ hometown of Aguascalientes, meanwhile, there is now a packhouse to accommodate the expansion of other produce lines.
Each day the facility can cope with 100 tonnes of the carrots that the firm has been successfully supplying to the domestic and US markets.
In the greenhouses of the company’s main production base in Fresnillo – just across the Aguascalientes state border with Zacatecas – bell peppers have also been growing well and the plan is to sell to the US.
Having supplied frozen broccoli to the horeca sector across the border, Los Rancheros said it is now making the first steps towards a fresh supply line.
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