Mission’s has impressive Peruvian footprint
With more than 4,000 hectares of avocados across three ranches in the premium growing regions of Peru, Oxnard, CA-based Mission Produce has an enhanced supply chain to meet the strong demand during the summer months, according to Patrick Cortes, senior director of business development and foodservice.
“In Peru, Mission owns one of the world’s largest avocado packing facilities, featuring state-of-the-art cooling, sorting, packing and bagging, as well as the packing capacity for 56 loads a day and plug-ins for 52 ocean containers,” he said.
The company’s Peruvian fruit is marketed to many regions around the world, with the majority being sent to the United States, Western Europe and Asia. Cortes noted that there are expectations that Peru’s summer volume will be significant. “The industry expects Peru to produce stable, high-quality volumes of fruit throughout the summer, indicating strong opportunities for promotions at retail in the near future,” he said in mid-May.
For its part, Mission develops retail programs according to the volume and sizing of the fruit being harvested. “In Peru, we typically see a strong percentage of larger fruit,” Cortes said, “so we offer our Mission Jumbo bags to promote enhanced value for our customers and their consumers.”
He continued: “Mission’s volume from our owned farms in Peru significantly supports our ability to meet strong demand and fully supply customer programs, especially considering the ever-changing market conditions throughout the year.”
Cortes touted Mission’s expertise in ripening Peruvian fruit, combined with its “industry-leading global ripe network” that enables the company “to deliver high-quality fruit and promote a positive experience for the end consumer.”
In terms of market price, the 2022 year has been interesting with a very strong market throughout the season and no letup in sight. “Global supply continues to face challenges in keeping up with global demand,” Cortes said. “Because of this, Mission is on the forefront of sourcing from premium growing regions around the world in order to continue providing a year-round supply of avocados for our customers.”
Tim Linden
About Tim Linden | 
Tim Linden grew up in a produce family as both his father and grandfather spent their business careers on the wholesale terminal markets in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Tim graduated from San Diego State University in 1974 with a degree in journalism. Shortly thereafter he began his career at The Packer where he stayed for eight years, leaving in 1983 to join Western Growers as editor of its monthly magazine. In 1986, Tim launched Champ Publishing as an agricultural publishing specialty company.
Today he is a contract publisher for several trade associations and writes extensively on all aspects of the produce business. He began writing for The Produce News in 1997, and currently wears the title of Editor at Large.
