“In the coming months, we plan to renovate our existing packaging room,” said Michael Layous, sales and marketing representative for The Garlic Co. headquartered in Bakersfield, CA. “We hope the upgrade will offer not only a more spacious working environment, but also enable us to handle a greater volume of output.”

The Garlic Co. is a leading manufacturer of garlic. It sells more than 25 million pounds of garlic every year to retail, foodservice and industrial clients. Besides using its own well-known “The Garlic Co.” label, the company also private labels for a major distributor.

Mr. Layous said that the 2012 California garlic crop will be winding down in the coming month to two, as it prepares for the 2013 harvest.

The Garlic Co. is a leading manufacturer of garlic. It sells more than 25 million pounds of garlic every year to retail, foodservice and industrial clients.“China, the world’s largest supplier of garlic, is pretty much on the same crop cycle,” he noted. “Presently, both the domestic and Chinese supplies are tight and therefore market prices are a little higher than normal. This is expected to continue until the new crop is harvested.”

The Garlic Co. was founded in 1980 by Joe Lane and John Layous, Michael Layous’ father. The two men came together with a vision to build a garlic business based on superior product quality, customer service and integrity. In order to ensure complete control of product quality and supply, The Garlic Co. was established as a vertically integrated company — including garlic seed development, garlic field production, harvesting, packing, processing and sales.         

Michael Layous concurred that food safety is an integral part of the produce industry’s focus today.

“We are reminded on a continual basis of the ever increasing demands and regulations being implemented in the food industry,” he said. “So it isn’t surprising to hear that terminal markets may have to make improvements to ensure the quality of products.”

“We subscribe annually to the BRC [British Retail Consortium] audit,” Mr. Layous continued. “Years ago we implemented GAP [Good Agricultural Practice] and HACCP [Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points] programs. We continue to view our food-safety initiatives seriously, as it is overlapped with the overall quality of our garlic.”

Concerning traceability, The Garlic Co. recently upgraded to a new inventory system. Mr. Layous said that the company has found that the system provides it with even better control of its raw materials and products, and it has lessened the amount of “offline” paperwork.

Approximately 95 percent of The Garlic Co.’s garlic is produced in California. It also shares a strong relationship with a grower in Baja, and it sources a little from Argentina, mainly to maintain relationships and fill in customers’ needs.

The Garlic Co. also handles an organic line. Mr. Layous said the demand is gradually increasing over time.

“We have not, however, observed any recent increases in demand that we can attribute to the slight improvement in the economy,” he said.