JU Fresh bursts onto Mexican avocado scene with $2 million in early sales
JU Fresh bursts onto Mexican avocado scene with $2 million in early sales
Seven weeks ago, Joaquin Urias worked for someone else. Today, he is executive vice president of a company, JU Fresh Produce in Pharr, TX, that has done $2 million worth of business in 42 days.
Mr. Urias’s success has not come out of the blue. He and his partners Salvador Hernandez and Juan Contreras have been in the Mexican avocado business for years. It was not until the beginning of S
JU Produce in Pharr, TX, may be a new company, but its founders have decades of experience in the avocado industry and are Hass experts. (Photo courtesy of Avocados of Mexico)eptember that they came together as the JU Fresh Produce team.
“It’s really more of a friendship than a partnership,” Mr. Urias said. “We do have a partnership of course, but it all started as a friendship. We’ve all been working in the Mexican avocado business for several years. We recently got a chance to start our own operation and we’ve done a little over $2 million in sales in seven weeks.”
Those figures would be staggering for any company, but in the produce business they are downright amazing.
Mr. Urias said the quick start out of the gate is due to the partners’ previous experience. While Mr. Urias oversees business north of the border, Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Contreras take care of operations south of the border in Mexico.
“They oversee the whole operation down in Mexico, from the field to our warehouse — they’re the ones who work the magic,” Mr. Urias said.
Mr. Urias and Mr. Hernandez have worked together in the Mexican avocado business for several years. The relationships they have built with buyers north of the border are paramount to JU Fresh’s jumpstart.
And while Mr. Urias is just 24, he is already an experienced industry veteran.
“I started out early down in Mexico,” Mr. Urias said. “It was kind of tough. We went through a lot of stuff so I started working at a young age and never stopped since.”
