Malena Produce Inc. in Nogales, AZ, has added some new items to its diverse lineup of Mexican grown produce items for the 2013-14 season, according to Gonzalo Avila, chief executive officer. The new items are sweet corn and European cucumbers.

Malena specializes in eggplant, bell peppers, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, pickles, chili peppers, grapes and melons. The company is perhaps best known for its eggplant and has been a leading supplier of eggplant in North America since the 1950s.

Javier (J.J.) Badillo, who was previously director of diversified products for Santa Paula, CA-based Calavo Growers Inc. and ran that company’s Nogales operations, has joined Delta Fresh Sales LLC in Nogales as general manager.

Prior to his involvement with Calavo, Badillo had been a partner in Maui Fresh International. He came into the Calavo organization with the acquisition by Calavo of Maui Fresh International in 2003.

The Nogales, AZ, division of The Giumarra Cos., which markets an assortment of Mexico-grown fruits and vegetables under the “Nature’s Partner” brand and various other labels, will have production increases on essentially all products for the 2013-14 season, according to Gill Muguia, division manager.

“Our acreage is up overall on pretty much all items,” Munguia said Nov. 18. That includes conventional, organic and Fair Trade certified products.

“We have expanded our organic line, and we have also increased our Fair Trade fruit and vegetable offerings,” Munguia said.

The main winter produce items out of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, particularly tomato products, have experienced delays due to weather and will probably be at least three weeks later than normal coming on in volume, according to Chuck Thomas, president of Thomas Produce Sale Inc. in Nogales, AZ.

“Sinaloa was hit by a lot of inclement weather,” Thomas said. “I think they got hurt worse than people are letting on. I think you are going to see a lot of crops that are going to be delayed three weeks, if not more, due to the weather they have had.”

Vision Produce Co., which is headquartered in Los Angeles with branch offices in Phoenix and Nogales, AZ, is continuing to increase both the volume and assortment of its Mexican-grown products run through Nogales, according to John Caldwell, general manager of the Arizona operations. “We are continuing to grow with our grower base,” he said.

“We just finished a successful honeydew deal out of Caborca, and we will be back in honeydews in the spring out of Caborca,” Caldwell said Nov. 20.

As the company’s name suggests MAS Melons & Grapes in Nogales, AZ, specializes in melons and grapes.

The company ships watermelons and honeydews from the Northern Mexican state of Sonora spring and fall and honeydews from the states of Colima and Nayarit in Central Mexico during the winter. Grapes are a spring program out of Hermosillo, Sonora.

Recently, however, the company has begun to diversify its offerings, specifically (at least for the present) for customers in Japan, according to Miguel Suarez, the company’s managing partner and sales manager.