Oxnard, CA-based Freska Produce International LLC, a leader in the mango business, has expanded its footprint in the avocado industry with its acquisition of California avocado packer Harvest Time Produce Inc., located in Oceanside CA.

Freska has been importing Mexican avocados into the United States for the past three years, and with the new California program complementing that deal, it will now have a year-round avocado program to offer its customers.

Chief Operating Officer Gary Clevenger said the company currently imports 12-14 containers of avocados per week from the Mexican state of Michoacán. He anticipates packing about 8 million to 12 million pounds of California avocados at Harvest Time for the 2016 season.

“We will start packing sometime in early January,” he said.

Harvest Time Produce was formed in 1985, packing mostly Hass avocados from growers in San Diego County, but also handling other commodities such as citrus. Over the years, the Hass avocado business dominated the company’s activities and it began importing from Mexico and Chile in 2002. Further expansion followed in 2010 with the installation of a larger packingline and the introduction of bagging equipment.

Clevenger, who founded Freska along with Jesus (Chuy) Loza as a mango importer more than a decade ago, said Harvest Time has had financial difficulties in recent years. He said the purchase by Freska will allow the avocado packer to be financially solvent and make better deals with growers.  

“We will be able to make it right with growers and the community,” he said. “We will be able to pay growers on a timely basis and even offer advance payments.”

The company mostly represents San Diego County growers, but Clevenger noted that both he and Loza live in Ventura County and will be making a pitch for growers in the northern districts as well as the south.

“We look at this as a tremendous opportunity,” he said. “We see avocados as a real complement to our mango business. The [retail] buyers for avocados are often the same people buying mangos.”

He said both mangos and avocados are tropical fruits with tremendous upside potential, and both have registered substantial volume increasers in recent years. With the expected expansion of approved packingsheds in more Mexican states for the shipment of avocados to the United States, Clevenger believes Freska’s avocado volume will continue to expand.

And he said California’s 2016 crop appears to be significantly higher than 2015, meaning Harvest Time’s volume might also jump substantially.

“We may do a lot more than 12 million pounds,” he said. “That’s the most they have done before, but we might do much more.”

The avocado packing operation will keep the Harvest Time Produce name and pack under both its own moniker as well as the Freska label.