The main winter produce items out of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, particularly tomato products, have experienced delays due to weather and will probably be at least three weeks later than normal coming on in volume, according to Chuck Thomas, president of Thomas Produce Sale Inc. in Nogales, AZ.

“Sinaloa was hit by a lot of inclement weather,” Thomas said. “I think they got hurt worse than people are letting on. I think you are going to see a lot of crops that are going to be delayed three weeks, if not more, due to the weather they have had.”

Vision Produce Co., which is headquartered in Los Angeles with branch offices in Phoenix and Nogales, AZ, is continuing to increase both the volume and assortment of its Mexican-grown products run through Nogales, according to John Caldwell, general manager of the Arizona operations. “We are continuing to grow with our grower base,” he said.

“We just finished a successful honeydew deal out of Caborca, and we will be back in honeydews in the spring out of Caborca,” Caldwell said Nov. 20.

As the company’s name suggests MAS Melons & Grapes in Nogales, AZ, specializes in melons and grapes.

The company ships watermelons and honeydews from the Northern Mexican state of Sonora spring and fall and honeydews from the states of Colima and Nayarit in Central Mexico during the winter. Grapes are a spring program out of Hermosillo, Sonora.

Recently, however, the company has begun to diversify its offerings, specifically (at least for the present) for customers in Japan, according to Miguel Suarez, the company’s managing partner and sales manager.

For the first 30 years or so of its 45-year existence, Sandia Distributors Inc. in Nogales, AZ, focused almost entirely on watermelons and hard shell squash. But that changed when some of the growers who had been with Sandia for many years decided to expand into different items. William (Bill) Spence, sales manager, who has been with the company 15 years and was hired about the time the transition began, told The Produce News a few years back that Sandia was no longer just a watermelon house but had expanded into a variety of products that were now among its core items.

The 2013-14 program for the Nogales, AZ, operation of Santa Paula, CA-based Calavo Growers Inc. is similar to what it has been the last couple of years, focusing on tomato products out of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, according to Salesman Marc Mendivil.

Sales will be handled by Mendivil and Daniella (Dani) Saenz, who have both been with the company for several years. Javier (J.J.) Badillo, who previously managed Calavo’s Nogales operation, has left the company to pursue other opportunities.

Water polo may not be a big thing in many parts of the country, but it is in much of California, including in the Central Valley, according to Joe Bernardi, president of Nogales, AZ-based Bernardi & Associates Inc. which has an office in Turlock, CA.

“We are helping to promote a high school seniors all-star water polo game up here in the Central Valley,” he said. “It includes high school kids from Modesto all the way down to Merced. We have been fortunate enough to get the cooperation and support from quite a few of the produce companies in the valley here.”