A major marketing and distribution agreement has been reached between Malena Produce in Nogales, Arizona and International Greenhouse Produce in Culiacan, Sinaloa Mexico. Gonzalo Avila, the CEO of Malena Produce Announced September 14th that an agreement was finalized on July 31st. Both companies have been in business for over 50 years.
Based in Nogales, “Malena Produce grew to be known as the largest and highest-quality shipper of eggplant in all of North America.” Avila said. International Greenhouse Produce and the Canelos family” are known for growing the best quality tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, ever since they were shipping under the ABC brand,” Avila said. Going forward, International Greenhouse Produce will be shipping its tomatoes, Peppers and cucumbers under the Garden Queen brand.
Jim Cathey who recently became the sales manager of Malena Produce, said eggplant is the new alliances only year around item at present. Long-term seasonal availability and year around availability of the core items the companies produce “Have yet to be determined.”
Avila noted that both companies are third generation family businesses, both started in Mexico by Greek immigrants.
“Our two companies, which have been around for over 5 decades, have joined forces to market our production.” Avila reiterated. As the marketing company, Malena ”will now have under one roof the best eggplant, squash, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.”
This winter Malena will be working from two warehouses in Nogales. Malena will also be shipping from McAllen, Texas this coming season. Malena will be offering the Mexican vegetable commodity mix to North American retailers, foodservice, wholesalers and brokers.
Cathey just announced the hiring of Juan Carlos Medina to join the Malena sales staff. Medina previously worked in Nogales at Rene Produce and “has experience in selling all of the commodities we are handling.”
In addition to Cathey, the Malena sales team now numbers 4, plus two sales coordinators. The others on the sales staff are Sergio Manriquez, Luis Galaviz, Bill Olvey and Christian Torres.
Malena’s fall deal has started with squash with slicer cukes to follow in 3 weeks along with the early eggplants and euro cukes, Cathey Said.
Source: Malena Produce
