Thirty-seven years ago when David Warren launched his company, Central American Produce Inc., the name was a great descriptor of the point of origin of the products it sourced.

His son, Michael Warren, who is the current president of the Pompano Beach, FL, operation, said “my father began by bringing in melons from Guatemala and pineapples as well. He pioneered the sno pea business in Guatemala.”

But times change and so has Central American Produce. When the Peruvian asparagus deal began in earnest about 20 years ago, Central American Produce was at the forefront of developing that industry. And thus its relationship with South American producers began and has flourished ever since. Today, the company’s top crop is mangos, which requires year-round sourcing and a significant presence in South America, as well as Central America.

Mr. Warren said the company began importing mangos about a dozen years ago, and since then they have become the anchor to its growing tropical fruit business. “We have put a lot of emphasis on mangos and our entire tropical fruit program. This line of products works very well for us and for our customers.”

He said the company has customers nationwide but it is especially strong from Texas east.

Besides increasing its mango business each year, Central American Produce is also growing its pineapple business and adding papayas to the mix. Mangos though are still the top banana, so to speak.

“Part of the growth has to be attributed to the [National] Mango Board. They have done a great job. You also have to give credit to the increase in the cut fruit category. More mangos are being used in that category, which is helping to increase sales.”

As he surveys this season, Mr. Warren is expecting a strong market throughout the fall. On Thursday, Sept. 13, he told The Produce News, “volume from Brazil has been lighter than normal so far. Exported volume is down as much as 45 to 50 percent from some areas.”

He said cool weather in some of the growing regions of that South American country has caused the delay in shipments, but he does expect them to catch up. “A lot of people are telling us that they are going to ship [to the United States] a few weeks longer this year because of the slow start. We expect to have Brazilian mangos until at least the end of October.”

At that point, Central American Produce will shift its importing volume to Peru for the rest of the year. Central America will begin filling the company’s mango orders closer to spring.

Partly because the company has expanded its reach well beyond Central America, it is slowly introducing a new label that recognizes its roots but doesn’t draw so much attention to that region of the world. “We still have ‘Mayan Pride’ and our other labels but we have now added ‘CAPCO,’” he said.

Of course, CAPCO is an acronym of the company’s full name, but Mr. Warren said it doesn’t shout out ‘Central America’ so loudly. “More and more people know us as CAPCO anyway so we thought it was a good idea to add this label.”

Over time, it may in fact become the moniker the company is known by.

All of that is fine by the original Mr. Warren. Michael Warren reports that, at age 96, his father, David, still comes in to the office every day for several hours. “He just loves this business and still gets excited about it,” he said.