Empaque Don Jorge, part of the family business’ of El Grupo Crespo and home to Crespo Organic Mangoes & RCF brands opened it’s doors for the season May 1st. The opening is highly anticipated for Crespo Organic customers, as it should help alleviate some of the pressures of the seasons difficult market conditions thus far; including limited & small fruit, long journeys and delayed border crossings. The convenient location in Rosario, Sinaloa makes the drive time to the major ports of entry (McAllen and Nogales) less than a day away.
Empaque Don Jorge, built by Roberto Crespo Fitch in the 1980’s as a global growing, packing and shipping hub for fresh Mexican mangoes, is the second largest mango pack-house in Mexico with maximum daily pack-out capacity of 14 truck loads per day. The pack-house hosts 6 (new) USDA supervised hydrothermal tanks, 7 cold rooms with up to 325 simultaneous pallet cooling slots . The pack-house includes a separate packing section for Canadian non treated fruit.
Empaque Don Jorge (EDJ) underwent a considerable transformation this past off season, replacing almost all the painted metal with stainless steel. Shiny new washers, sizers, sorters and conveyers cover over 100,000 SF of packing space; optimizing results. The makeover helps EDJ increase efficiencies and reduce costs, while maintaining the highest standards in food safety and sustainability as well as providing a safe work space for over 500 (peak season) employees.
Empaque Don Jorge not only packs the fruit for El Grupo Crespo’s own brands; but they offer packing and shipping services for many Nayarit, Michoacán and Sinaloa growers, packing in a variety of organic and conventional brands for the USA/Canadian markets. The pack-house will operate from May through late August this season, with over 3.5 million cases anticipated to move through it’s production lines.
The opening of EDJ offers Crespo Organic Mangoes the ability to make sharper and more nimble choices in what has been a very constricted market with extraordinary organic demand. Expect more attractive price points as the season enters into the more voluminous regions, as well as an increased ability to place specific sizing and varietals in distinct ports of entry, and an expanded capability for large volume orders.
Crespo Organic Mangoes aims to increase the consumption of organic Mexican mangoes globally with high-quality consistent product and consumer driven commodity education. Seeking to help change and drive perceptions of Mexican-organic agriculture, people, and culture as well as develop and promote sustainable agricultural growth and markets for Mexican land and people for generations to come.
Source: Crespo Organic Mangoes/RCF Distributors
