Calavo Growers Inc. is a NASDAQ-traded enterprise leading the industry in the procurement and marketing of fresh avocados and other perishable foods. Headquartered in Santa Paula, California, they also engage in the manufacturing and distribution of processed avocado products. The company began in 1924 when a group of growers-hobbyists formed the California Avocado Growers Exchange. Calavo Growers Inc. then “grew” out of this exchange into the publicly traded firm they are today.
Calavo has three modern packinghouses located in Santa Paula and Temecula, California and Uruapan, Mexico. These facilities pack approximately 200 million pounds per year. Calavo operates two main business units, which supply wholesale, retail, food service distributors, foodservice operators, and industrial customers globally. These two business units are Fresh Products and Processed Products.
The Fresh Products unit engages in the acquiring of avocados grown in Mexico and Chile, as well as tomatoes, papayas, mushrooms, onions, coconuts, and pineapples. The processed products division manufactures almost 100 brand-name and proprietary flavors of frozen and fresh-refrigerated guacamoles. They do this from their modern, 90,000-plus square foot Mexican facility. The company engages in the widespread distribution of these varieties of guacamole so they reach the refrigerated and frozen food cases of supermarkets worldwide.
Calavo Growers Inc. has a rich history in the way avocados reach end users. In 1925, Calavo was instrumental in amending state agricultural codes to include standards for avocado handling and defects. In the early 1960s, they played a key role in creating the Avocado Advisory Board. Now called the California Avocado Commission, they are the official information source for California avocados and the avocado industry. The company has an approximately 2,300-member grower community, which includes small-acreage farmers supplying both the Irvine Company and Limoneira Company, two of California’s largest avocado producers.
Calavo provides growers market knowledge, hands-on field management, education and informational programs, and some of the highest returns in the industry. Calavo has a 15-percent ownership interest in Limoneira, an international land, farming, and food company. Limoneira is Calavo’s second-largest shareholder. In fact, Calavo’s headquarters in Santa Paula, California are on the Limoneira Ranch. At these headquarters, Calavo provides a showcase for visiting customers, who can witness growing, packing, ripening, and shipping in an end-to-end process.
In their former Santa Paula processed products plant, Calavo also has, along with other operations, their ripening program and state-of-the-art firmness sorting equipment, called ProRipeVIP® (Verified Internal Pressure). This process utilizes acoustic firmness sensors, or sound wave technology, to determine the firmness of an avocado. It does this by detecting vibration patterns. Calavo is the only avocado marketer in the U.S. to offer this post-ripe sorting technology. This helps them provide retailers with avocados that are ready to eat, which furthers consumption of this agricultural product.
Acoustic firmness sorting (AFS) is the newest technology for the non-destructive measurement of avocado firmness. Calavo analyzes signals to determine the firmness index or internal pressure of the fruit as a whole, rather than only as a small part. Calavo’s customers can order ProRipeVIP® avocados by VIP Ripe Stages according to their foodservice, retail, or wholesale requirements. Calavo is constantly innovating to make sure avocados – and that guacamole dip for your next party – are of premium quality.
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