D’Ottavio and Oakes: Product ‘absolutely beautiful’ for new venture’s first harvest
D’Ottavio and Oakes: Product ‘absolutely beautiful’ for new venture’s first harvest
When Vineland, NJ-based M. D’Ottavio Produce Inc. and Immokalee, FL-based Oakes Farms announced at the end of September that they would be working together for the 2014-15 Florida produce season, farming over 600 acres in Immokalee, they obviously could not predict the exact harvest dates of their first crops or how those crops would look.
Now they can.
Two of the principal executives in both companies provided exactly that information, and more, in exclusive interview Oct. 30 with The Produce News.
“The weather is good right now, and everything is looking absolutely beautiful,” said Steve Veneziano, vice president of operations at Oakes Farms. “The sheen on the squashes is beautiful. The specialty peppers are absolutely loaded, so the yields should be outstanding. And there’s great plant strength and size.”
As to the timing, Veneziano said that summer squashes — zucchini, green and yellow — were scheduled to begin harvest later in the day. “On Monday [Nov. 3] we’ll begin to harvest green Bell peppers, eggplant and all the specialty peppers,” such as Jalapeno peppers, Cubanelle peppers, Poblano peppers, Long Hot peppers, Habanero peppers and Hungarian wax peppers, he said, “and cucumbers should start around November 7.”
Looking a bit farther out, he added, “We’ll have grape tomatoes, rounds and Romas around November 18.”
Mike D’Ottavio, president of M. D’Ottavio Produce Inc., and Johnny Salvati, also from D’Ottavio Produce, will be handling sales; they will be working out of the Immokalee area from Dec. 5 to around the end of March.
D’Ottavio also announced that the two well-known companies have formed a new trucking company. “We’re purchasing four new tractor-trailers” that will be utilized “for delivery from the farm to customers up and down the East Coast, including chainstores, independent retailers, wholesalers and some terminal markets,” he said. “Our new fleet of trucks will be equipped with satellite tracking along with a 24-hour customer service number. Timely arrivals along with quality produce will be our main focus this season.”
