HERMOSILLO, SONORA — Alan Aguirre, director general of Grupo Alta, headquartered here, is very highly respected in Mexico and the Nogales produce circle. Aguirre acknowledged that he is best known as a strict perfectionist.

A Feb. 4 tour of two of his many Mexican horticultural ranches showed what can be accomplished with such perfectionism.

The tour involved a group of 17 speakers and special guests who would attend the Feb. 5-6 second International Vine Symposium presented by Asociación Agricola Local de Productores Uva de Mesa Frutas y Hortalizas, which uses the acronym AALPUM. Aguirre is the president of AALPUM, which is generally known as the Sonora Spring Grape Association. The Sonora grape conference was well attended by grape growers and technicians; 358 of which were from Mexico and 12 from other countries such as Spain, the United States and Chile.  

The tour stopped north of Hermosillo at Grupo Alta’s Agricola Alta Pozo Manuel vineyard. Pozo Manuel has 1,300 acres of table grape vineyards. Of this, 150 acres are covered in shade cloth. Different colors and textures of shade have been tested for three years and Aguirre said pearl and crystal have shown the best quality, yield and promote late maturity.

The shade cloth is pulled over the trellises tightly enough to please a drummer.

Roads between grape blocks are constantly graded. Signs indicating grape varieties and other pertinent information are perfectly printed and square by any measure. Outside one shop, unused trellis materials are stacked to military precision.

Trellises per se are apparently aligned — and installed — by a surveyor. Countless thousands of trellis wires are tight and straight.

Grupo Alta hosted the AALPUM tour for lunch in the employee cafeteria. The vast room was as clean as the most demanding mother’s kitchen. The lunch fare — which is served to employees — was wholesome and tasty.

Outside the lunch room, Pozo Manuel’s employee camp was also appealing. There is a flawless grass soccer field and a smaller green synthetic playing field for employee recreation. Aguirre told The Produce News that its brand-new synthetic field can be used for a variety of sports. These facilities, he added, have been made possible “in part by Grupo Alta, and by consumers who have paid premiums by buying Fair Trade products grown by Grupo Alta — and marketed by its subsidiary, Divine Flavor — in retail stores such as Whole Foods and Costco.”

A few miles south on Mexico Highway 15 is Grupo Alta’s Campo La Cuesta. Vineyards are also here but amid the plantation are 150 acres of vegetable shade houses.

Aguirre noted the tomato shade house has 30,000 beefsteak tomatoes per hectare (12,800 acres), which yield about 12,000 15-pound boxes of organic tomatoes per hectare. This is about 4,800 boxes per acre. Without hesitation, Aguirre offered more numbers for his Roma and cucumber shade house production.

At Campo La Cuesta, as at the Pozo Manuel site, there is a clean, organized and well-equipped employee camp.Both camps have a dental office.

As the sun set on Feb. 4, Grupo Alta’s young dentist relaxed, peacefully leaning on his opened office door frame, face mask pulled beneath his chin, taking in the warm dusk of another beautiful Sonoran day.

The dentist said he sees as many as 10 employees a day. He is the first dentist for any of field workers to visit. He finds the work very satisfying because of the opportunity to help so many people.  

As a long day turned dark, the AALPUM tour bus loaded to head south to Hermosillo.

Always-gracious Aguirre offered “hasta mañana” at the camp. He had work to do.