Avocado grower Mevi Avocados’ new packing facility is up and running and already poised for expansion.

Strategically located in Ciudad Guzman in the Mexican state of Jalisco, which is now the second-largest source of avocados in the country after Michoacan, the operation’s 35-container-a-week capacity will lift significantly when a second packingline is added in the coming months.

When completed in the coming months, the new Mevi Avocado packing facility will lift the company’s production capacity significantly. (Photo courtesy of Oppy)The facility, which opened July 13, gives the avocados Mevi grows on the surrounding acreage direct access to Asian markets via the nearby port city of Manzanillo.

Mevi also grows avocados throughout nearby Michoacan, the only Mexican state currently cleared to export the fruit to the United States. Its year-round harvest is marketed exclusively by The Oppenheimer Group.

Mevi and Oppenheimer anticipate that the market will open to avocados grown in Jalisco in the near future.

“The Medina family, which owns and operates Mevi, has a long-standing reputation for avocados of impeccable quality and unparalleled flavor,” James Milne, Oppy’s avocado category director, said in a press release. “The new facility represents a significant investment in putting fruit condition and quality at the forefront. We look forward to the opportunity to sell the fruit packed there, and we applaud the Medinas’ proactive approach.”

Oppy’s avocado category managers, Mike Kostick and Jeff Walker, along with category analyst Rodrigo Lopez, joined local dignitaries, including the mayor of Ciudad Guzman, at the recent opening ceremony.

Innovations in the packhouse, which will eventually employ around 300 people, include a state-of-the-art packingline, offices for quality assurance staff and ultimately personnel from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and a cold-storage chamber.

New technology has been introduced outside the packinghouse as well, according to Milne, including a new and automated irrigation system on 1,700 acres of avocado production. Inside and out, the growing and packing process is managed by specialized staff members to assure optimum efficiency.

The Medina family has grown avocados since 1974, when, after years of producing strawberries, sugarcane and corn, Javier Medina Sr. saw great potential in the green fruit and planted his first trees.

Today, Medina and his son, also called Javier, manage the business together, with the elder Medina overseeing operations and the younger liaising with Oppy on marketing and sales.

Mevi avocados are available, ripened to customer specifications, year-round.