RIO RICO, AZ — Produce distributors in this Nogales, AZ, shipping region have various business approaches. For IPR Fresh, the key approach is to select in Nogales the right products to fill customer orders. Among the local roughly 100 produce brokers and distributors, “We know who has the best product,” said Francisco Obregon, who heads business development for IPR Fresh. Essentially, IPR Fresh customers provide the company with shopping lists. Then IPR’s buyers visit the warehouses in Nogales and neighboring Rio Rico to serve as the expert eyes to pick the produce to best suit individual customer needs.

An exception to this rule is IPR’s association with one Mexican grower, Divemex, which has greenhouse vegetable production in two cities: Culiacan, Sinaloa, and Etzatlan, Jalisco. “We distribute their colored bell peppers. Their ‘Fresh Republic’ is our flagship brand” for bell peppers, Obregon continued.

“We are experts in consolidation. We consolidate shipments,” he said. Those shipments may include a number of different commodities within a trailer.

“We break pallets,” for an even greater service. “Our drivers are our quality-control people,” he said.

IPR Fresh’s largest number of customers are medium-sized produce wholesalers.

Francisco Obregon, who is best-known in the North American produce trade for his role as founding chairman of The Produce Marketing Association’s International Board, as well as for his leadership on several other international association committees, launched IPR Fresh in 2003. Five years ago, he sold the company to two of his sons, Alvaro Obregon, the general manager, and Enrique Obregon, sales manager.

Proclaiming retirement from industry service, three years ago Francisco Obregon re-joined IPR Fresh.

A third brother, IPR President Jose Luis Obregon, joined the company in November 2011, after a successful term as the executive director of the Hass Avocado Board, located in Irvine, CA. He was with the Hass board for seven years but was pulled away “because IPR needed someone to oversee the operations.” His brothers wanted him to join IPR and his wife was from Hermosillo, Mexico, which is 150 miles south of Nogales, so she was pleased by the move from Southern California.

It is not a coincidence that the Obregon family hails from the city of Obregon, which is the second largest city in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

Jose Luis Obregon said he is in the odd position of working for his brothers, who own the firm, yet he is technically their boss. He added that his father has earned huge respect from his sons, so the family patriarch’s opinions carry a great deal of weight in business decisions.

“It’s a blessing every day to have my dad here,” he said. “How many people don’t have a father to interact with on a daily basis?

“Our bell pepper volume will be up this year,” Obregon went on to say. “We will have bell peppers through June.” The deal ends suddenly, with an almost immediate drop for IPR from 30 trailers a week to none.

IPR seasonally began shipping a low volume of bell peppers in September. The volume increased in mid-December and will begin peaking in mid-April.