Calavo Growers Inc., which is headquartered in Santa Paula, CA, continues to work on improving quality and consistency in its tomato program “inside of this 2012-13 season,” according to Javier (J.J.) Badillo, director of diversified products in the company’s Nogales, AZ, office.

The company is also expanding the Roma side of its tomato business as well as its red bell pepper program, which is now in its second year.

Javier (J.J.) BadilloIn tomatoes, “we continue, out of our Culiacan, Sinaloa [Mexico] operation, with the same programs we had last year with mature greens, vine-ripes, an expanded Roma tomato program and a beefsteak program and are one step further into our red bell pepper program,” Mr. Badillo said Feb. 7.

“We continue with our different pack styles, as we continue to get better at our packing programs,” he said. Those pack styles consist of “the 15-pound one-layers, the 20-pound two-layers and the 25-pound volume-filled [cartons],” as well as an RPC program with quality and size specific to customers’ needs, he said.

Calavo has additional acreage in its Roma tomato program this year as that program continues to expand in response to customer demands, Mr. Badillo said.

“With our sizing of jumbos, extra large, large and medium, all under the ‘Calavo’ label,” the program has “worked out quite well,” he said.

Customers are enjoying not only the expansion of the Roma program but the consistent volumes and consistent qualities that are achieved by growing the Romas in a protected agriculture environment, he said.

The Romas are grown primarily in shadehouses in the Culiacan area.

Although the company’s production remains steady on tomato products other than the Romas, the Calavo tomato program is “an exciting program,” Mr. Badillo said. “We continue to grow big tomatoes, very heavy in the 25-pounders to the jumbo and extra large size, with good strong production in the 3x4, 4x4 and 4x5 size in two layers,” and consistent supplies in the 20 and 22 size beefsteak program.

“We continue to enjoy” the opportunity of “servicing our customers that like bigger size tomatoes,” he said. “Our customer base continues to expand, and the quality and consistency of our program continues to grow and get better every year.”

In Calavo’s red bell pepper program, “we’ve got an 11-pound unit as well as a 1-1/9 bushel [pack],” Mr. Badillo said. Although further expanded this year, it is still a small program. “We will have to wait another year before we have better volume,” but there will be sufficient production this year that the company can “give just a handful of customers a taste of the red bell pepper program.”

For the present, Calavo is doing only the red bells in the bell pepper category. But once the program is “up to … what we feel is our standard, then we will continue to expand with other colors,” he said.

The Roma tomato program started in December “and should carry us into the first of June,” Mr. Badillo said. All other items Calavo is handling in the tomato category should be on that same schedule.

The peppers, which are also grown under protective structures, started the first of January and should continue to the first of April, he said.