With two major development projects in the pipeline, southern Texas’ future as the focal point for produce arriving from Mexico looks to be in the bag.
Abasto Corporation, developers of McAllen Produce Terminal Market and other terminals in the Lone Star State and throughout Mexico, has just started pre-selling on the San Antonio Wholesale Produce Market, a major complex of 180 state-of-the-art 3,100ft2 units strategically located on the city’s Highway South 410 loop.
“We should begin construction on June or July of this year and we estimate it will be 15 months to completion,” says Carlos Zambito, Abasto’s marketing director, adding that it could help the city to become the biggest regional wholesale distribution center for fresh produce in the US.
Meanwhile, work is also set to begin in McAllen on the construction of an E-Beam complex to sterilise mangoes, guavas and other tropical fruits. The US$22m facility – the first of its kind in the south west – uses a non-nuclear alternative to gamma-based irradiation to sterilize fruit and vegetables. Its construction follows the recent USDA decision to lift a ban on irradiation facilities on the US-Mexico border.
Zambito says the deal will attract a larger share of the Mexican produce deal to McAllen and allow consumers throughout the US to enjoy a wide range of produce with a longer shelf-life.
