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IPR Fresh completes expansion ahead of winter season

By
John Groh

bell peppersIPR Fresh recently completed an expansion at its facility in Nogales, AZ that will enable it to more comfortably operate during the upcoming winter vegetable season – and beyond.

Jose Luis Obregon, president of IPR Fresh, told The Produce News on Dec. 2 that construction was recently completed, which added around 5,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space, bringing the total area under refrigeration to 37,000 square feet.

As part of the project, a second level was added to part of the building to accommodate the IPR sales, accounting, dispatch and quality control teams.

“It was a really good move for us because we now have more space for our sales and administration departments,” said Obregon. “We also added a break room for the warehouse team, which they didn’t have before. It has had a positive effect on employee morale, and happy employees means more productivity.”

Obregon said the additional space means IPR can now handle around 10 truckloads of product, and everything can be consolidated in-house “without having to send it out to do in-and-out when we are overflowing. It’s more efficient, so we can better service both our customers and our growers.”

When Obregon spoke with The Produce News, IPR was just starting to receive Persian cucumbers from Culiacan, as well as some Bell peppers.

“Weather has been perfect down there, with no delays or catastrophes,” said Obregon. “Unless something happens, we expect to have good volumes for the rest of the season.”

Obregon said that while IPR will have promotable volumes come January, the season is shaping up to a be a different one than last year.

“Heading into 2024, we were coming off a lot of rain and the hurricane in October, so there was limited production and higher prices,” he said. “But this year, the weather is good and there are no delays, so it will be more of a challenge to move product. This is where our salespeople will be tested, because anyone can sell in a hot market.”

Obregon said sourcing will continue out of Culiacan until around June, when IPR will pull from Jalisco until Mexico gaps in July.

“It is pretty typical that we see a gap in July, so we’ll be bringing in some product from Holland to cover our customers,” he said. “Then we’ll be back in Jalisco in early August and then transition to Nayarit and then eventually back to Culiacan. That’s pretty much how our year progresses.”

Regarding the short window for imports from Holland, Obregon said IPR started getting product occasionally a few years ago to keep customers in supply when no product was available from Mexico, but this past summer was the first year they did so on a consistent basis during a six- to seven-week period.

“We’ll be looking to increase that import deal a bit because it helps us better service our customers,” Obregon said.

He said IPR had just started its seasonal sweet corn deal out of Obregon, Sonora, in early December and it will be increasing tha line this year, as it has added another grower.

Regarding its flagship Bell pepper program, Obregon said that while it has the same number of growers as in past years, those growers will increase production this season, so he estimates 10-15 percent more volume.

Obregon laments the talk of an additional 25 percent tariff on Mexican goods that has been proposed by president-elect Donald Trump.

“Hopefully it’s just another scare tactic,” he said. “The bottom line is the tariff will hurt the American consumers because the cost will be passed along at the supermarket level in the form of higher prices.”

He added that it also makes no sense because more emphasis is being placed on healthy eating, and the tariff would amount to an additional tax placed on most of the healthy fruits and vegetables available to U.S. consumers during the winter months.

“All of a sudden, healthy fruits and vegetables are more expensive, so what will the consumer do? They will turn to cheaper, unhealthy processed foods,” said Obregon. “That’s contradictory – and ridiculous.”

He also said the tariff would hurt the American farmers, because Mexico would levy retaliatory tariffs on the import of U.S. goods.

“So prices in Mexico would be higher for U.S. pork, beef and poultry,” he noted. “It will hurt everyone.”

Regarding the recent SWIPE event, held in Tucson, Obregon said it was a “phenomenal experience for us, and I applaud the FPAA, which did a fantastic job with everything.”

He said the convention attendance was more than double last year, and the number of booths was also up.

“There was a great mix of buyers, growers and shippers, and the energy was high the entire time,” he said. “It was a great opportunity for us to both interact with our customers as well as show the growers what we do and how we market their product.”

Obregon added that the decision to hold the SWIPE in January going forward was an excellent move for a couple of reasons.“It gives us more breathing room coming off the big IFPA Global Produce Show, plus everything is in full swing in Nogales so we can better show what we can do. We’ve already re-upped for next year and we’re looking forward to it.”

John Groh

John Groh

About John Groh  |  email

John Groh graduated from the University of San Diego in 1989 with a bachelors of arts degree in English. Following a brief stint as a sportswriter covering the New York Giants football team, he joined The Produce News in 1995 as an assistant editor and worked his way up the ranks, becoming publisher in 2006. He and his wife, Mary Anne, live in northern New Jersey in the suburbs of New York City.

 

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