The Giumarra Companies, which is headquartered in Los Angeles and operates from facilities in many different production areas, expanded its avocado facilities in Escondido, CA, this year to accommodate more ripening rooms and more bagging capacity.

Gary Caloroso, regional business development director, said the expansion will allow the company to better serve its customers as pre-ripening and bagging of avocados are two unmistakable trends in the industry. Selling avocados at retail that are ripe tonight or at least in a day or two has long been a service most packers offer, and as consumption increases there is a continual need for increased ripening capacity. The sale of bagged avocados has been trending upward for the last several years and received a huge boost this past year as COVID-weary shoppers showed an affinity toward buying all produce, including avocados, in bags.

In quantifying the expansion efforts, Caloroso said: “We upgraded our packing line which makes us more efficient. We increased our bagging capacity by 35 percent — this is particularly important given the increase of avocado bag sales to consumers. Additionally, we added more racks to store more loads. Last year, we added five new ripening rooms and just updated the other five so now we have 10 state-of-the-art ripening rooms.”

The Giumarra executive said the facility will be used heavily during this California avocado season, which is just getting underway in earnest. “We have already started packing and shipping,” Caloroso said on March 10. “And we expect to have good California volume through September and into October.”

Though the bulk of the California crop, which has been estimated at under 300 million pounds, will be sold in the April into August time frame, Caloroso said Giumarra has significant quantities of late fruit from more northern districts and will be one of the last shippers in the California deal this season.  He said that early in this season, with small fruit proliferating, the company’s increased bagging capacity has been put to good use. He noted that the facility is also used to ripen and bag Mexican avocados destined for West Coast retailers when it is not being used for California fruit.

Caloroso also touted Giumarra’s new certified “Fair Trade” avocados from one of its Mexican growers, Carlos Genel.  The program began in the fall and should last into May. He explained that the Fair Trade certification means that additional money is paid for the fruit with those dollars going into a fund with the farm workers directing the expenditure of those funds. The workers on that farm have picked three areas in which to focus their financial efforts: clinics, education and the environment. The program is administered by Fair Trade USA and Caloroso said it has gained traction among several U.S. retail chains. Giumarra also offers Fair Trade certification on some of its watermelon, grape and asparagus production.

“It is a great program that can raise significant dollars with the workers voting as to how spend that money,” he said.