Franz De Klotz, Carrie Briones and Nick Bozick of the Richard Bagdasarian Inc. sales staff. Richard Bagdasarian Inc., located in Mecca, CA, was incorporated in the middle of the last century and has a rich history in the Coachella Valley’s grape industry dating back 60 years. Pasha Marketing LLC was formed at the beginning of this century and is building its reputation in the vegetable end of the business. But the two companies share roots as well as office space and sales staff.

The family-owned-and-operated business features Richard Bagdasarian Inc., named after its founder, as one of the larger growers of California table grapes and citrus in the Coachella Valley. The company was incorporated in 1952. Pasha Marketing is the vegetable arm of the business and now in its 11th year in business.

Nick Bozick wears the title of president of Richard Bagdasarian Inc., while Franz De Klotz is the managing partner of Pasha Marketing as well as vice president of marketing for both firms.

In reality, the two companies work side by side both figuratively and literally. They also share Carrie Briones, who handles sales for each, a position she grew into four years ago.

In a joint interview, Mr. Bozick handled most of the questions about grapes and deferred to Mr. De Klotz when the subject of vegetables was on the table, but both are obviously intimately involved in all the crops grown and shipped by this Coachella Valley mainstay.

“The grape crop is a bit early this year,” said Mr. Bozick. “We will start the first week of May and last into at least the first week of July.”

On April 19, he said the marketing situation looked good as “there is a shortage of Chilean grapes. I think we are going to roll into an empty pipeline once we get going.”

Bagdasarian added organic grapes to its mix last year, and this year about 15 percent of its volume fit that category. Mr. Bozick said more acreage is being transitioned into the organic category so he expects that percentage to increase over the next several years as demand increases. “We started moving in that direction because we saw the demand from our existing customers,” he said. “We’ll see if the demand continues to grow.”

While there are a few organic-specific customers, Mr. Bozick said most of the firm’s organic grapes are purchased by longtime customers of the firm’s conventional grapes. While most of the varieties of both conventional and organic grapes are the same, Bagdasarian does pack the organic grapes in a “uniquely different” bag and box for easy identification.

Mr. De Klotz chimed in that all of the firm’s grapes are GS1 and GTIN certified for complete traceback at retail.

On the vegetable side for the 2012 season, Pasha is growing, packing and selling red, green and yellow peppers as well as eggplant. “We started green Bells last week,” said Mr. De Klotz on April 19th. “And we will start reds on May 1.”

He said 2012 appears to be a fairly average year for Coachella Valley vegetables in terms of both timing and size. Similar to its sister company, Pasha Marketing has added organic peppers to the mix. And again similar to Bagdasarian’s grapes, the split is about 85 percent conventional, 15 percent organic.

“We are selling primarily the same customer base for all of our products,” said Mr. De Klotz. “Oftentimes we can create a full load with one stop.”

He said the grapes and vegetables are compatible when loaded properly with the proper separation.

New this year for Pasha Marketing will be an extension of the pepper season as it will also be selling peppers grown by Johnston Farms in Edison, CA, a little later in the season. Edison is located in Kern County in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley. “That’s going to give us peppers through the month of July,” Mr. De Klotz said.

He added that the firm takes great care in its presentation, packing all three colors of peppers in both large and extra-large configurations. And like the grapes, Pasha’s vegetables are GTIN compliant.