Grower Alliance LLC in Nogales, AZ, which was founded seven years ago, has “been able to grow little by little” from its inception, and that growth continues for the 2013-14 season with expansion in several commodities, according to Jorge Quintero Jr., managing partner.

“Euro cucumbers we just started this week,” Quintero said Nov. 19. “That is our big deal,” and it has expanded significantly this year. “We are doubling our production from last season, so that is something huge. That is all out of Culiacán” in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

In regular cucumbers, the company has extended its shipping season. “We started in September, and that is going to go all the way through the whole Nogales season without a stop,” he said. “That is the first time we will be able to do that since Grower Alliance opened.”

Jorge Quintero Jr.The company has a new grower this year for eggplant, he said. “We’ve done eggplant in the past, but haven’t been able to have a program grow. But hopefully with this grower, we will.”

The eggplant, which is shadehouse grown, is “an exclusive variety that this grower is using,” he said. It is an American Beauty type, large and black, has “great color,” and “gives us the condition we are looking for.” It will be packed in the “Midnight Beauty” label, and he expected it to be starting soon.

Grower Alliance’s colored bell program “should start about mid-December,” That, too, is out of Culiacán, “and that is also going to be an increase to our program,” he said. It will consist of red, yellow and orange varieties.

New for the company this year is hard shell squash. “We’ve been receiving Acorn and Kabocha squash for the last couple of weeks, and we expect some Butternut and Spaghetti in the coming weeks. I don’t think we have ever done hard squash before in our seven years.” It is just a small deal out of Guaymas and Hermosillo in the state of Sonora, Quintero said.

“We’re just testing it out to see what will happen,” he said. “It is not something we are concentrating too much on, but it was available and we got it.”

Grower Alliance has been shipping product out of Sonora since the last week in September, he said. “We started with cucumbers, honeydews, Zucchini and gray squash along with watermelons and mini-watermelons.

“[That] kind of gets the ball rolling here for the southern crops in Culiacán such as bell peppers, Euro cucumbers and tomatoes,” he said.

“We should get going on green beans” within a few days, he added, “but probably won’t start with good volume” until the first of December.

Green bells should also start by the end of November, he noted.

In honeydews, “we expect to go all the way through the winter,” Quintero said. In watermelons, following the fall program, “we will have a few in December and January” out of Nayarit.