Vision Import Group in River Edge, NJ, shares the marketing of the “Van Gogh Mango” with Vision Produce Co., in Los Angeles, and Vision Produce Partners of Texas in Pharr, TX.

“We share a unified national distribution,” said Ronnie Cohen, vice president of sales for Vision Import Group.

“We are three separate companies, and we each do business a little differently,” he continued. “But we are unified in the distribution of the popular ‘Van Gogh Mango’ as well as with our lime program. By being strategically aligned, our goal objective is to have full national distribution.”

A box of beautiful ‘Van Gogh Mango’ from Vision Imports. (Photo courtesy of Vision Import)Vision Import markets the item east of the Mississippi, and Tavilla handles the western side of the country. The president of Tavilla Sales, Bill Vogel, is a partner in Vision Imports, along with Mr. Cohen, Raul Millan, executive vice president of Vision Import Group, and now with Ben Brittain Sr., who is a partner in the new Texas alliance division, which is named Vision Produce Partners of Texas.

Mr. Cohen said that part of the company’s strategy this year is to break into the Canadian market. Vision Import Group, he noted, had worked with some clients in Canada in the past, and that it is again now targeting potential customers there with limes, pineapples and mangos. He noted that the quality of the “Van Gogh Mango” is very good again this year.

“We are definitely on target to increase our volumes over last year,” he said. “And we are looking to have other countries packing the ‘Van Gogh Mango’ in the future. Our goal is to have the product available year round from all producing countries. The label is synonymous with and equates to the quality of the mangos. We all like to have volume, but we feel that the quality of what we shipped is what brings people back for more.”

The company’s “Mojito” lime program continues out of Mexico, as does its “Mr. Squeeze” lime program.

Mr. Cohen said that the company’s new “Havana” label also continues to grow. The brand is used on both limes and pineapples from Mexico. It also has the MB2 Golden pineapple under the “Havana” label — produced in Costa Rico — which is known to be very high-quality variety.

Vision Imports’ “Mr. Squeeze” branded lemons are packed in options for different customers. The company can accommodate retailers, foodservice operators and others so each has exclusivity with the label.

“We also added key limes to our lineup,” said Mr. Cohen. “We are trading them now and we’re looking to build up enough volume to brand them ourselves. For the time being they are in a generic package.”

Mr. Cohen said Vision Import Group is very passionate about what it does.

“My background is in wholesale, as is Raul’s and two of our sales reps; George Uribe and Henry Kreinces,” he said. “We like to say that we’re all graduates of the University of Hunts Point because we all worked and learned much of what we know there.’”

The company is moving forward and growing at a steady pace. Mr. Cohen said, “We are looking to open an office in South Florida. It’s our goal for 2013.”