In 1964, Marvin Davis came to Texas to launch a family farm. A half-century later, he and son Mike Davis head up the thriving Tex Mex Sales LLC in Weslaco, TX, which has become a top year-round supplier of red, white and sweet onions from the Davises’ own farms and those of grower-partners.

After studying onion production and ag economics at New Mexico State University, Mike Davis joined his father full-time. In 1999, the company bought its first repacking machine. Since then, Tex Mex has done nothing but grow. The company recently expanded its shed and then enclosed it. Another new acquisition is a second dryer that will double capacity to dry and store from 1,500 bins to 3,000.

Marvin Davis makes sure things are running smoothly on a packingline at the Tex Mex Sales complex in Weslaco, TX.Mike Davis said, “A lot of the reason for enclosing the shed involves food safety and keeping our product a little cooler. We’re enclosing it for the dust and insulating for the heat. The way things are we think we’re probably going to be doing a lot more retail businss and food service business here coming up. We’re looking forward to it and stepping up to the challenge. We have plenty of acres out of Mexico and are increasing our acres out of Texas to be able to accomodate this business that’s coming our way.”

Fully PTI-compliant and PrimusLabs GFS- and GAP-certified, Tex Mex Sales focuses on a program the Davises call “Onion Care,” their term for ceaseless attention to the product they grow and ship.

“Our goal is to give you the perfect onion and that’s what Onion Care is all about,” Mike Davis said. “It’s a process from the field to give our customers a great-looking onion with no mechanical damage and free of defects. That’s simple and that’s our premise. I don’t like problems.”

That makes Tex Mex a one-stop shop for retailers looking for onions.

“They’re looking for one person to supply them that can do the job. All they want to do is give you an order and get it filled and not hear anything more about it,” Marvin Davis said.

Consistent quality and supply give Tex Mex an edge, he continued. “There used to be places where growers could move junk but there are no places any more to move junk — if you put something on a truck it better be good.”

After 50 years, the Davises have figured out how to make it good, but they continue to raise the bar.

“We don’t ever stop. We’d like to, sometimes,” Mike Davis joked. “But after we finish the projects that are under way we’ll be where we want to be. Our biggest problem was we needed to haul in more product but we didn’t have the room. Now we can dry 3,000 bins — about 54,000, 10 pound bags — and also have storage capacity. We’ve been doing it right and when you want to do things right you have to put out some money. You do the right kind of job for your customer, whoever it is, and that takes care of itself. You take care of them, they take care of you.”