Toronto’s longstanding fresh fruit and vegetable importer-distributor Catania Worldwide is positioning itself to widen its distribution reach in Canada and beyond when it moves into a 50,000ft2 warehouse in the west end of Toronto next month.
President Paul Catania exclusively told Americafruit that the family-owned company poised for vibrant, but controlled expansion for some time to come thanks to its own growing properties in the US and Mexico, a widening network of international sources, new technology and expanded facilities.
“We still focus on eastern Canada, but we’re beginning to tiptoe into the west,” Catania explained. “We’re still importing fruit from Europe and we’ve moved into specialty items. But we’re not trying to be all things to all people – we have about ten commodities that we work very hard.
“We’re getting very close to specialty fruit growers in particular Mexican states,” Catania continues. “Their agriculture ministers are coming to us, asking what they can do to help us, but we don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. We’re looking at things like dragon fruit and star fruit. It’s more interesting and there’s a lot more room to manoeuvre.”
Catania Worldwide already owns a Mexican subsidiary, Catania Mexico, from where it grows and packs limes at its own packing facilities.
“We’ve already got two packing sheds in Mexico and we’re slowly building the Mexican fig and lime business,” Catania reveals.”
The group is also now working with mangoes and lemons from Central and South America, and plans to begin supplies from Mexico at the end of August.
The full report is published in the April/May issue of Americafruit.
