North America: Giumarra Borquez uses fair trade funds to build dental, optometry centres for community

Giumarra Borquez announces that its Fair Trade Certified™ growing partner, Campos Borquez, recently completed the construction of dental and optometry centres for its employees and their family members in the city of Obregón, Sonora, Mexico.

The two new facilities were built adjacent to the existing employee health care centre. Farm worker community development funds from Giumarra Borquez’s participation in the Fair Trade program were used to build the new centres, and will also be used to operate it.

“We view the care of our coworkers, their families, and our neighbouring communities with utmost importance. Our community involvement is as vital to us as providing high quality products to our customers,” says Pablo Borquez Almada, president of Campos Borquez.

The partnership between Giumarra and Campos Borquez is a vertically-integrated operation that grows, packs, and distributes asparagus to the North American market. The asparagus is packed under the Nature’s Partner label, and may also be marketed as Fair Trade Certified.

“As our partnership continues to grow, we are thrilled to be a part of the achievements of Pablo Borquez and his family, including becoming the first asparagus grower in the world to be certified by Fair Trade USA in 2012,” says Bruce Dowhan, vice president and general manager of Giumarra Borquez. “Pablo has been working to better his community since the early 1990s, and we expect to see more employee-voted improvements with the continued growth of the Fair Trade program.”

Giumarra Borquez will begin shipping its fall asparagus crop in October and expects a substantial increase in volume this year, with ample supplies to support promotions for Fair Trade, as well as the upcoming holidays.

To learn more about Pablo Borquez Almada’s story and Giumarra Borquez, please view the video here: https://vimeo.com/105895333

For more information:
The Giumarra Companies
T: +1 213.627.2900
Email: mschulz@giumarra.com
www.giumarra.com

Publication date: Mon 29 Sep 2014