RIO RICO, AZ — The calendar year in the Nogales deal had a rough start. But in February, Frank Calixtro, a salesman at Calixtro Distributing Co., Inc., said he looked forward to “hopefully more stable volume and good quality.”

Calixtro said his company “moves everything in Nogales.” This, of course, is a very wide range of Mexican produce.

RIO RICO, AZ — MAS Melons & Grapes, LLC, located here, is known as a major distributor of Mexican melons and grapes.

The company’s majority owner, Miguel (Miky) Suarez said a couple of new twists have been added to his offerings for this season.

“For the first time in our history, from Colima, we are shipping seedless watermelons,” Suarez said. “For the first time from anywhere, we have a very small deal in mini-watermelon.”

MAS Melons’ melon acreage is up 30 percent from a year ago.

RIO RICO, AZ — The busiest time of the year is fast approaching for the produce marketing company, GreenPoint Distributing, LLC.

GreenPoint is run by brothers Octavio and Ernesto Gutiérrez, who own the 20-year old agricultural enterprise, Agricola Gutiérrez, based in Obregón, Sonora.

The brothers own GreenPoint, and are also independent in other endeavors as well.

RIO RICO, AZ — Beyond the current spring vegetable deal, the Mexican spring watermelon deal for Fresh Farms will begin in the first week of April, according to Jerry Havel, director of sales and marketing.

For Fresh Farms, the large-volume watermelon deal will run until July.

Havel said on Jan. 20 that it is “too early to tell when grapes will start. Typically, though, it is between May 1 and May 5.”

RIO RICO, AZ — When a produce distributor has a broad product line that undergoes a total rebranding campaign involving many growers and packinghouses, the results can only evolve over time.

SunFed Produce, LLC, based here, announced such an effort in October at the PMA Fresh Summit in Anaheim.

On a Feb. 3 check-in with Brett Burdsal, who is the director of marketing for SunFed, he indicated that new three-count pepper bags are “shipping now to selected markets.” The three count peppers are either “stoplight” or “rainbow” mixes.

NOGALES, AZ — “We are looking at a mango program that will start in April, and run in May, June and July,” said Sergio Chamberlain, president of SCC Fresh, LLC, located here.

The mangos will be sourced in the state of Nayarit, which is south of Sinaloa. Chamberlain is expecting to handle between 500,000 and 600,000 boxes of mangos. Chamberlain, who launched SCC in 2009, has sold Mexican mangos in the past, but this is a first venture into the category for SCC.