“We strive toward our goal as a team dedicated to the mission of growing, supplying and servicing customers with high-quality products and information,” Jim Mulcahy, North American sales manager for New World Farming Trade, told The Produce News. “This starts with our focus on growing, packing and shipping according to Good Manufacturing Practices [commonly referred to as GMP] and food-safety-certification requirements.

“We — individually and collectively — are passionate about every aspect from growing all the way to the end consumer’s satisfaction,” he continued. “We do not look at just growing and supplying, but we also analyze the business as consumers ourselves. Close attention is given to our own company team, the New World Farming Trade family, friends and consumers’ likes and dislikes. And we listen carefully to all suggestions. We totally believe in the ‘from the field to the consumer’s table’ philosophy and therefore our commitment is complete and fulfilled every day.”

A New World Farming Trade vineyard. Taking a hiatus from his career in Chile in 2000, Matias Ruiz Tagle decided to go to work with a produce distribution company that was establish in the New York region.

With a family involved in the produce business for more than 80 years, he began acquiring new customers, products and services, and he started buying and selling produce products around the world.

In 2008, Ruiz Tagle decided to create his own company —New World Farming Trade —headquartered in New York City, to provide quality products and service to the customers he developed. His motivation was to expand the business into more niche markets that, at the time, he felt required more quality attention.

“At the same time he and a longtime associate, Hernan Baeza, decided to create an export company, New World Chile, in Chile, as an export company,” said Mulcahy. “Baeza is an agronomist who has been in the produce industry since 2000, and his industry history spans several countries, including Mexico, the U.S., New Zealand and Latin America.”

With their business models in place the two men began exporting grapes, including Sugarone, Thompson, Flame, Pink Muscatel seedless varieties, and Red Globe seeded grapes that were produced primarily on the family’s vineyards in Chile.

“In addition, they created joint growing partnerships with others family relatives and independent growers who have farms and orchards in Chile,” added Mulcahy. “The products included cherries, blueberries, tree fruits and additional grapes.”

In 2011, the company decided to hire a new sales manager due to the success of the model in New York, and that is when Mulcahy was appointed North American sales manager. He has more than four decades as a produce professional, with experience that spans independent wholesalers and 30 years in sales and purchasing at firms located at Hunts Point Market in the Bronx, NY. His experience portfolio also includes food safety, quality control and operations management in foodservice and distribution.

“Also in 2011, Ignacio Pinto was incorporated into the Chile operation as grower relations and quality control manager,” Mulcahy noted. “His areas of expertise cover agricultural engineering, production, quality control and logistical management in the company’s distribution areas of the U.S., Chile, Mexico and throughout Latin America.”

The primary company business is in the exportation of produce from Chile, which supplies the New York division as well as customers around the world.

“Besides Chile, we have growing partners in Peru, Argentina and New Zealand,” said Mulcahy. “These partnerships give us the opportunity to supply our customers with fruit from different countries from the Southern Hemisphere.

“Our main focus is to give professional service to wholesalers and retailers with high-quality mixed loads of fruit,” he added. “We give our customers products that are required on a weekly, year-round basis.”

The main business of New World Farming Trade in the U.S. is in importing produce from its Chilean growing areas along with its other suppliers from global sourcing. Its customers include retail chain stores, foodservice operations, wholesale operations and independent retailers. Its service area encompasses the New York City and metropolitan areas, other eastern U.S. regions and portions of Canada.

“We are also representatives for growers in Mexico and continental North America,” Mulcahy explained. “Our network provides quality products on a continual basis for our customers during the Northern Hemisphere’s production season. We use our contact network, logistic systems and international marketing knowledge to provide customers in various world markets with products from the U.S. on a year-round basis.”