Ciruli driving sourcing expansion
Ciruli driving sourcing expansion
RIO RICO, AZ — At Ciruli Bros. LLC, “We look at every season and try to see if there are opportunities to diversify. We also try to be bigger in our core items,” said Chris Ciruli, chief operating officer of the family-owned produce distributor, located here.
In the last two summers, Ciruli extended well beyond its core Mexican produce business to handle squashes grown in Sunnyside, CA. The firm sold California-grown green and yellow squash, Mexican Grey squash and hard squash.
“We’re thinking of transferring those customers back down here.” This involves offering the production of the same items in Mexico. Ciruli started shipping soft squash in November and planned to begin shipping hard squash in December.
Ciruli Bros. has hired Mat Kobayashi, who is from a produce family in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, to expand its reach with “new Mexican farms and farmers. We have a grower and marketing team. Now we have a guy coming back and forth” between the growers and Ciruli. “That would be the most valuable thing, knowing what is happening two or three weeks from now. He is key to sourcing and helping expand our packs in Mexico. That is what retailers want down there. He will be the connection.”
Chris Ciruli continued that Kobayashi “is also a realist on [grower] forecasts, so we don’t overcommit. From November to March is the most challenging weather-wise for temperatures and weather conditions.”
Ataulfo mangos are a core item for Ciruli Bros. Ciruli said that wasn’t always the case, as 30 years ago the firm was big in more common round varieties, such as the Tommy Atkins, Haden and Kent. The volume involved for those varieties is so heavy that “you need another team” to manage them. Kobayashi is extending his work to the mango business “and now we’re back to start marketing those varieties we’ve not marketed the last 10 years or so.”
Mangos have large production in alternate years, and 2015 is lined up to be a heavy-volume year, Ciruli said.
He praised the work of the National Mango Board to develop markets for the commodity.