Cabrera has broad-based industry vantage point
Cabrera has broad-based industry vantage point
Omar Cabrera has worked in the Nogales produce industry for 25 years. Over the years, he has worked with a broad base of the industry.
Cabrera owns two firms: Agri Packing Supply, Inc., which provides packing supplies to Mexican growers, and Agri Packing Distributors, which is a cold storage and logistics company. Through this, Cabrera said he works with virtually all of the Nogales produce distributors.
Beyond four Nogales cold warehouses, Cabrera also owns a San Diego facility and will be opening a cold storage in South Texas this spring.
Thus, he has a broad view of the distribution of Mexican produce.
“There is a lot of need for refrigeration here,” Cabrera said of Nogales. “Business is growing. There is not enough space for what the industry requires.”
Many warehouses are double-racking “but there still is not really enough space in the spring,” he added. “You need different temperatures for grapes, which are our highest-volume item, and watermelons.” The nature of watermelons is to need a lot of space.
“Nogales is booming and it will continue to boom. In the next five years there will be more space here.”
Cabrera added that South Texas distributors “are supposedly taking some pressure off of Nogales as we go.” The Nogales trade “has been doing this for 50 or 60 years and they are in the diaper stage,” he said, but because of lower freight costs to Eastern markets “some business is going over there, no question.”
“Nogales is not yet threatened,” Cabrera continued. “Nogales is receiving more items than it used to. We are receiving different tropical fruit and grapes are on the rise. Watermelons are growing every year. They are still here and booming.”
Sonora, which abuts the Arizona border “is that a bigger part of the Mexican business than it used to. There used to be a few shoulder crops but now it’s very, very important aspect of the Nogales deal.”
Meanwhile, distributors in the McAllen area are receiving more produce from Sinaloa. “I think Sonora is growing at a faster pace. There is a lot of citrus crossing in Nogales. There are just more items. Nogales used to be mostly tomatoes and eggplant.”
Cabrera added, “We deal with everybody. We are proud to be part of the growth. The key is to have product when they need it.”
