With larger crops coming out of Mexico for the 2012-13 season, Calavo Growers Inc. in Santa Paula, CA, is "making really good use" of an expanded capacity in its avocado packinghouse in Michoacan, Mexico, according to Rob Wedin, vice president of fresh sales.

The packinghouse expansion "has been very successful," Mr. Wedin told The Produce News Oct. 2, about two months into the new season. "We've got modern packing equipment in, and ... we can accelerate our packing there as the California crop drops off."

He estimated that by the Rob Wedinlast week in October, Calavo will be 95 percent finished with its large California crop and "will be relying very heavily on Mexico for volume to our U.S. customers.

In addition to increased packing capacity, the facility expansion in Mexico includes expanded cooling capacity. "That is giving us the ability for more direct shipping to our customers, which reduces our costs and reduces the cost to them," Mr. Wedin said.

The direct shipments all go through Laredo, TX, he said. For that matter, all of Calavo's Mexican fruit crosses at Laredo. "Then we distribute the fruit that is non-direct through our value-added depots in New Jersey near Philly, in Garland TX, near Dallas, and here in California," mostly out of the Santa Paula facility and some out of the Temecula facility.

"Food-safety programs are very strong there at our new packinghouse" in Mexico, Mr. Wedin continued. "We are applying G-10 stickers to all of our boxes in avocados now ... meeting the timetables that the [Produce Marketing Association] provided for all of us" for Produce Traceability Initiative compliance.

The 2012-13 Mexican avocado crop started in August with the off-season Flora Loca bloom fruit, which was much heavier this year than it has been in recent years, and by late October, the main crop would be into heavy production. "The crop is going to be heavy for the next six to seven months, for sure," he said.

The company's value-added ripening and bagging programs continue to increase, according to Mr. Wedin. "We are getting increases as a percentage of our business, even as our volume increases," he said. "The percentage that we are ripening or bagging in consumer bags continues to go up. We are well over 11.5 million consumer bags a month now" and are, in fact, getting close to two million consumer bags per month.

"Those two programs help execute on the demand that is growing in the United States," he said. "Demand is continuing to grow, and when consumers can take five avocados in a bag, or be able to pick up fruit that is ready to eat tonight, those are very positive programs," enabling consumers to return to the store more quickly to buy more avocados.

Even as consumer sales of avocados are increasing, so are foodservice sales. "The restaurant business has been just outstanding for fresh avocados," Mr. Wedin said. Restaurants are doing "a lot of advertising" of menu items with avocados. "There are a lot of really good stories being told out there."

Many Calavo foodservice customers that had not previously been pushing avocados are "willing to promote avocados now in the restaurants," he said, attributing that trend largely to Calavo's ripening program. "They know they have that good access to ready-to-eat avocados through the VIP [Verified Internal Pressure] program," he said.

"We are heading into what I think will be an exciting fall" in the avocado business, Mr. Wedin said. There will be a lot of industry advertising for Mexican avocados throughout the fall period, "so there is a lot of support both to the consumer and for the trade. The Hass avocado promotion order "is definitely working and keeping the advertising and promotion going."

California is looking at a good crop of avocados again next year, and "I know we are going to have growers interested in picking in January and February" while Mexico is still going strong, Mr. Wedin said. "We will definitely see it," but not to the extent that it will be seen in March and April. From that point forward, California shipments will be heavy through October 2013, and probably well into November. "It is going to be a big California crop."

Chile, Peru and other countries will also have fruit in the U.S. market over the course of the next year, but at Calavo, "our focus is really heavy on North America" in sourcing for the U.S. market. "We will be selling some Chilean fruit," he said. "But I would say that our Mexican program and our California program are 95 percent of our sales here in the U.S."

Mexico and California "are doing a great job at providing the quality and the supplies that the market needs" to keep pace with a continued rate of growth in demand of 10 to 15 percent per year. "So our focus is on those two sources."