Reputation is everything in the produce industry. Fresh Tex Produce of Alamo, TX, knows that and keeps a watchful eye on its client list.

“We’re very much selective about clientele – you have to be,” said Director of Sales and Marketing for Fresh Tex Produce and Tex Starr Distributing Ryan Wolverton. “If you start sending your product to every person out there, you don’t know where it’s going to go and who’s going to have it. More importantly, how they are going to market it and treat your label. You want people who are going to be able to put your label out there and get a premium for it. It is very important who we go to because it does no good to compete against ourselves in every market.”

Fresh Tex aims to be a major player in the Roma tomato deal.Fresh Tex carries a full line of limes, tomatoes, peppers and onions on a year round basis out of Mexico. Also, as the partner company of Fresh Tex, Tex Starr Distributing, LLC., which is the exclusive grower-shipper of the Royal Star papaya, also adds to the overall commodity profile with the year round supply of the Royal Star and Maradol papayas and the seasonal availability of its premium “Super Star” Honeydew. Collectively, Fresh Tex and Tex Starr have the products to satisfy tropical programs, but are laser focused at-present on premium Roma and lime programs.

As an international grower-shipper, Fresh Tex is as focused on food safety as it is product quality and clientele. The company is GFSI Certified on both sides of the border and recently received a perfect score on its latest audit.

“We made that commitment to make sure we were able to provide an even better product and that started with our farms down in Mexico,” Fresh Tex partner Jesus Falcon said. “When we had to satisfy certain levels of food safety for some of our customers, we had to make that commitment at the farm level in Mexico. We felt it was prudent and called for us to go ahead and do it here as well. We’ve got a different kind of food safety program than a lot of people have for that reason. So that’s an added benefit and I think it really shows the commitment we have – we’re not doing it just because we have to, we’re doing it for a reason: to provide our customers and their customers the safest product possible. Food safety is more a mentality than it is a process – you’re either committed to do it 100 percent the right way or you’re not.”

Investing employees with personal responsibility is a main component to the Fresh Tex philosophy.

“We have very low turnover. We have had numerous employees here for many years, so we’re able to keep, not only consistent product on the ground and in the box, but consistency in our work force as well,” partner Kenny Alford said. “Our people are able to do a much better job because they are well trained, efficient and they understand the corporate philosophy. They also take ownership of their roles which is vital because in the end, it ultimately makes huge a difference.”

Fresh Tex has always partnered carefully with selected Mexican growers to provide premium products grown under protected conditions, guaranteeing consistent supply and quality.

With its Romas, “We’re directly involved with the amount of acreage we’re putting in and the seed we’re putting in,” Falcon said. “We do have a very unique seed that has much better shelf life, it’s much more resilient, resistant to disease, it also ripens more evenly and has a better interior cavity as opposed to other varieties—it’s a superior tomato. When it’s fully ripe or fully red they’re still extremely firm, whereas other varieties start breaking down and get soft. These get ‘Coca-Cola red’ and they’re still very firm.”

Fresh Tex aims to up its ante in the Roma deal, with product shipping under its “Sun Crest” and “Fresh Tex” labels.

“We want to grow and extend our retail coverage,” Wolverton said. “We are new to the market in a way for our tomato, not as a company of course, but as a product. A lot of people may not know us like the other big names, but we’re going to be a big player in Romas moving forward. With year-round supply, that’s really going to position us in a great spot to be able to offer ads, contracts or certain pricing structures that can be advantageous for our customer.”

When it comes to Persian and Key limes, “We’re dealing with one of the top growers in Mexico. We have one of the higher-quality limes available on the market. We feel like we’re really positioned well to have a good strong market share,” Falcon said.

Limes are inspected for first grading in Mexico, then re-inspected for quality control at the Alamo facility. And a new packing machine “allows us to essentially take hands off the lines, short of pulling out any decaying or yellow fruit. We’re basically hands-free after that initial grading process,” Falcon said. “We’re pretty excited about that from a food safety standpoint as well as a consistency standpoint. We’ll be able to have a much more consistent pack for color, size or grade.”

Premium product is paired with premium packaging, a combo bag with mesh that lets the limes breathe while still allowing plenty of room for eye-catching graphics that drive sales. A wide variety of pack sizes are available.

“We’ve always had a very good name with our limes,” Wolverton said. “Our ‘Sun Crest’ label has always been one of the top labels. In most markets we go into it is one of the nicer labels you can get your hands on. Like our standard carton, that success comes from the marketing of the bag -- it’s attractive, it’s eye-catching, it looks really sharp so retailers are able to position it in their store a little better and are doing more cross-promotion with it.”

Fresh Tex is in a growth mode, but it plans to manage that growth carefully.

“If you can build that brand loyalty on your label, that’s critical. If you start messing around with it or sending it to the wrong place it can really hurt,” Alford said. “We have a five year plan in place and we have a very clear direction on where we want to go, where we want to be positioned, what we want to do and how big we want to get. We have a strategic plan in place that kind of slows us down or stops us from getting any bigger than we want to be. We don’t’ want to be a company that continues to grow, grow, grow and get bigger and bigger and bigger. We want to keep it somewhat exclusive and manageable so that the true focus is not lost – taking care of what our customers ultimately need. More product can possibly create more problems. But if we can bring in premium product and pack it superiorly, that ultimately provides a much better niche in the market than anything else.”