LOS ANGELES — Samra Produce & Farms Inc., here, a grower-shipper as well as an importer and distributor specializing in Asian and Indian fruits and vegetables, has increased its producing acreage this year in the Coachella Valley of California.

Harbhajan Singh with some Indian peppers under the company’s ‘Punjab’ label.A leader in okra production, the company has doubled its okra acreage this year, according to Harbhajan Singh, the company’s founder and president.

“We have about 150 acres of okra this year, more than ever before,” he said.

In addition, there are “a lot more items we are growing in big volume right now,” and some new items that are in their first or second year of commercial production, he said.

Indian eggplant is up in volume, he said. Samra grows several types of eggplant.

Also up in acreage are several squashes such as Tinda and round Opo. The round Opo squash is popular with people from India and Bangladesh. Tinda is a small round green squash or gourd that is about the size of a ping-pong ball. Samra is also attempting to grow Tindora squash, a tiny green squash that somewhat resembles a miniature cucumber. Currently, “we bring it from the Dominican,” he said. “I am trying to grow it here in California.”

The company’s drumstick production is up this year. A year or so back, frost devastated Samra’s drumstick plantings, killing about 75 percent of the trees. But the surviving trees have thrived since, “and I now have about 20,000 trees,” he said.

Indian jujube “has done very well the last few years and is getting a good crop” for the coming year, he said.

Samra is also growing Guar beans (also called Gawar and several other spellings). The beans are used for Guar gum, but “Indian people use them for cooking, too,” Mr. Singh said. The company has been doing well with the Guar beans since starting to grow them in California last year. Quality is very good, he said.

Fresh curry leaves are another Indian product that Samra is growing in California. “There is very good demand on that,” Mr. Singh said.

The company was currently planting some Indian mango varieties both in California and in Mexico. There are already some mangos being grown in the California desert, so Mr. Singh is hopeful that the Indian varieties will do well there. Planting in Mexico will provide production at other times of the year. The Indian mangos have flavors that are distinctively different from other varieties, he said.

In all, Samra is currently farming about 20 different produce items in California and importing or procuring others. “We handle, in all, about 50 to 60 items,” Mr. Singh said.

“I am trying to cover more of the commodities” from the South Asian region, he said. “Some items we cannot bring to the United States” because of U.S. Department of Agriculture restrictions,” and those items, in particular, he is trying to grow in California. He tries to add at least one or two new items every year. Many are successful. Some of the more frost sensitive items do not do so well, due to the Coachella Valley typically suffering a freeze every few years.

For example, “I tried two times” to grow sugar cane, but it kept freezing, he said. “Finally I quit” because it was costing too much money.

Tindora squash may face a similar fate, but “we are working on certain things to protect it from the frost,” he said.

Most of the items Samra is planting are labor-intensive, Mr. Singh said. Fortunately, labor availability has not been a problem since the farm’s biggest demand for labor comes through the summer and into fall, immediately following the spring grape season in the Coachella Valley. “I have right now about 150 people working,” he said, so he is able to keep those workers employed after the grape harvest ends.