rio rico, az — Steve Yubeta grinned when asked if the 50th anniversary of Farmer’s Best International, LLC, meant that all visitors get a free balloon.

Oh well.

The company, owned by Sinaloa’s Tarriba family, has now been a grower for 50 years and has operated its Rio Rico distribution company for 30 years. And so the nostalgia ends.

Farmer’s Best has much more important matters as it looks to its future.

“We are adding to our staff” with new sales and sales support personnel. “We are making new additions to continue to grow our existing operations,” said Yubeta, who has been with the distribution company for 15 years, serving as its vice president of sales and marketing.

Steve YubetaGoing forward, “the winter program will grow larger and larger.” The firm’s Euro-cukes and green bell peppers both started earlier this year. “Our customers asked that we begin earlier. We are making that happen.”

In fact, the green bells are becoming a year-round commodity for Farmer’s Best.

Farmer’s Best Euro-cuke shipping now is beginning in the first week of October instead of the first week in December.

The green bells are started in the first or second week of November instead of early December.

Roma tomatoes and squash for Farmer’s Best are also showing a slight volume increase.

The firm also produces grape and vine-ripe tomatoes. It exports Kabocha squash to Japan. Sometimes those volumes are so huge that it involves chartering a vessel for the transpacific shipment.

In Sinaloa, Farmer’s Best capitalizes on micro-climates ranging from historic and beautiful La Cruz on the coast south of Culiacan toward the east approaching Sinaloa’s mountains. The Tarriba family of Culiacan, which founded and owns Farmer’s Best, provides about 80 percent of the volume shipped by the distribution company. The Tarribas pack the “Farmer’s Best” label.

Farmer’s Best also has production coming from the Bay family in Sonora and the Hernandez family in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. The Bays pack the “Bay” brand and the Hernandez family packs under the Wintergreen brand for distribution by Farmers Best staff.  

Farmer’s Best employs 11,000 people in its peak production season.

The firm grows table grapes and watermelons and squash near Hermosillo, Sonora.

Yubeta said socially responsible practices are so much a part of the management philosophy that they “are just something that is done.”

Similarly, at Farmer’s Best, it’s a given that food-safety practices are of the highest level.

Farmer’s Best has two modern refrigerated warehouse facilities. In Rio Rico there is a 95,000-square-foot cold storage for 3,200 pallets. In McAllen, TX, the firm operates a 24,000-square-foot facility for 1,400 pallets.