“This year, we’re just coming off a 12-day cold snap, which perked up demand and markets a bit,” he said. “We’ll continue to watch the weather, but this is normally a transitional time anyway, and so markets are usually strong when winter production picks up out of Mexico.”
“We’re in a good place right now starting our winter deal,” Camera continued. “We intentionally diversified our portfolio, but we are still best known for our tomatoes and cucumbers out of Sinaloa.”
He added that Delta’s fall cantaloupe deal was a bit of a nice surprise this year. “You don’t normally think of cantaloupe as a Thanksgiving crop, but with the cooler temperatures we’ve had and with California out of the mix and not much offshore production, we caught some good markets.”
Camera said the Delta Fresh team participated in the second annual SWIPE expo in early November in Tucson and had a very positive experience.
“The show had great traffic and continues to grow,” he said. “It brings a good ROI for companies here in Nogales. In the past it didn’t have as much value, but the FPAA has done a good job of bringing in more buyers so we had a very positive experience and plan to participate again next year.”
Additionally, he said moving the expo to January 2026 is much better timing for all involved.
“The November timing was intended to be the kick-off for the season, but it comes right on the heels of IFPA and right before the busy Thanksgiving push,” said Camera. “Tucson is a very desirable destination in January for a buyer from the Northeast or Midwest, and that also gives us the opportunity to showcase everything in our portfolio.”