While known for being a vertically integrated avocado company, GreenFruit is close to bringing a new offering to market: colored bell peppers. "This project has been in the making for several years and required a lot of planning," says Kraig Loomis with GreenFruit. "We've been involved in growing avocados in Colombia for several years now and it has been our President's vision to expand our offering from the South American country." One of the reasons is that Colombia offers a lot of consistency and stability in both volume and price of produce. "We are looking forward to supporting our customers by taking that volatility out of the market for other commodities as well."
Two years ago, GreenFruit started to embark on this project. "We did the research, trialed the bell peppers, and built the greenhouses," commented Loomis. "The moment we decided to move forward with the bell pepper project, the market for Colombian bell peppers to the United States opened up and timing couldn't have been better."
In the past two years, greenhouses were built in the Cali region in Colombia, located on the same farm as the company's avocado orchards. In addition, the company invested in a packing house, fully dedicated to its bell pepper program. The focus is on colored bell peppers, including red, yellow and orange with red being the predominant color. While some volume has been available since the trials started, it wasn't sufficient to support the export market. As a result, the bell peppers mostly stayed in the domestic market in Colombia.
However, this will change soon. Starting in December of this year, some fruit will be available for the North American market, but the season will fully ramp up in January. From then on, colored bell peppers from Colombia will be available year-round in bulk, but also in different types of packaging, including bags and cardboard containers.
For now, Colombian bell peppers are destined for the U.S. and Canadian markets, but down the road, Europe may be included in GreenFruit's export program as well. In the meantime, the company is already thinking about the next produce item to expand into.
IFPA
Later this week, on October 18 and 19, team GreenFruit will be exhibiting at IFPA's Global Produce & Floral Show in Atlanta, Georgia. Interested in taking a firsthand look at the company's avocados and bell peppers? Make sure to stop by booth B4072.
For more information:
Kraig Loomis
GreenFruit
Tel: (+1) 949.251.0963
[email protected]
www.greenfruitavocados.com