Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, headquartered in Pescadero, CA, has currently added new growing zones in Mexico to accommodate the expanded market demand, as well as to expand its development mission to other growing communities and families.

Marliese Ward, creative services manager for the company, said that the locally grown movement is definitely challenging the organics category to be better.

“Organics need to have a story; to have better quality and availability attributes to compete against product that is available from local farms,” said Ward. “Consumers want to support local communities and it’s our challenge to communicate that our core business is specifically helping small grower communities, even if they are in the remote parts of Mexico or Peru.”

Owners of Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, Sandra Belin and Larry Jacobs.Ward added that Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo is very excited about the local trend as it plays to the company’s core strength as a valued local producer in northern California.

“Everyone wants their herbs to be local,” she exclaimed. “That’s exactly what we do. We are expanding our local offerings this year, branching out into new wet and dry organic vegetable categories and continuing our very successful local organic strawberries. We will have a full line of winter squash, a bumper crop of local Padron peppers and we will be introducing some lettuces for the local market.”

Ward also explained that as customers seek to support their local farmers, demand for local tomatoes has definitely created marketing challenges for Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo’s organic tomatoes.

“However, we have worked to develop year-round retail programs that demand availability of these products every day,” she said. “Being a year-round regular supplier of a cluster of specialty tomatoes, other vegetables and herbs have become an increasingly important part of our total business and an area that we are targeting more growth.”

She also pointed out that many retailers are asking the company to work with them to cultivate direct programs for its locally grown products, especially herbs. This increase in partnerships provides growth opportunities for growers in their local markets.

“I think that the source of imported products will increasingly become important in the story as customers’ expectations will not diminish,” said Ward.

“Some extreme local foodies will buy only in season,” Ward continued. “But the large opportunity is the educated, highly demanding customer base that is shopping in a cleverly merchandized retail environment. Our target consumer wants year-round availability of core and specialty commodities, sourced from legitimate growing partnerships that benefit the local communities of origin. It’s what we do, and will continue to do in the future.”