Divine Flavor announces its new project of summer organic bell peppers in Jalisco, Mexico. This program will add another of the company’s staple items to its year-round product list. Continuing from its established roots in Sinaloa, Mexico, with veteran producer, Hortifresh, the company will receive its first shipments later this month.
Hortifresh, originally based out of Sinaloa, is Divine Flavor’s largest grower of organic colored bell peppers and mini peppers. All of which are produced primarily in hydroponics greenhouses during the west Mexico season. The companies will now have their program in Jalisco to bridge the gap for when Sinaloa starts again in late fall.
Left to right: Carlos Bon of Divine Flavor, VP of sales, Ernesto Urtusuastegui, Hortifresh, owner and CEO.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our company as this will highly contribute to our year-round offerings of one of our strongest veg commodities,” said Michael DuPuis, public relations manager of Divine Flavor. “Hortifresh specializes in the pepper category. Their ability to establish operations in a new area of Mexico and produce at the caliber they’re known for is a major achievement.”
The new operation in Jalisco, occupying close to 20 hectares, has already been in production for three years producing conventional bell peppers, while the farm engineers at Hortifresh have been laying the groundwork for organic production. This season, Hortifresh will begin 10 additional hectares of organic bell peppers with the hopes of expanding and adding organic mini peppers in the coming seasons.
Right: Eduardo Cid Fuentes Echavarria, operations manager, Hortifresh
Leading the charge for Hortifresh and its new facilities in Jalisco is owner and CEO Ernesto Urtusuastegui, who is part of the company’s 3rd generation family business. Urtusuastegui has been operating the company since the early 2000s. Since then, Hortifresh and Divine Flavor have expanded their bell pepper programs which service retail chains across the US and Canada.
The Hortifresh Jalisco team.
“We are a single team with a single goal to produce and sell the best quality bell peppers,” said Urtusuastegui.
Although the first boxes of organic peppers are on the way, Urtusuastegui said the process leading up to this project was quite difficult and required waiting for the right moment. “We needed to be responsible growers and make sure we would be able to produce the same great quality products we already grow in Sinaloa.”
He said the geographical region in Jalisco is quite different than the areas where its Sinaloa facilities are located. “Jalisco is a different climate, different soils, different pests, and diseases, and it was very important we understood how to manage this. Once this was out of the way, we could focus on producing great quality bell peppers.”
Jalisco has been in production since June, and the season will stretch until December once West Mexico begins.
For more information:
Michael DuPuis
Divine Flavor
Tel: +1 (520) 281-8328
mdupuis@divineflavor.com
https://divineflavor.com/