Val Verde Vegetable Company, the grower-shipper of products from Texas and Mexico, has announced that it is bucking a trend of recent years by helping cauliflower make a comeback and introducing other new products, including green onions.
The company is conducting what it has described as an 'ambitious schedule' of variety trials that include not only cauliflower and green onions, but also malabar spinach, golden beets and romaine.
In the past, California has accounted for nearly 90 per cent of all US cauliflower production, with various other states growing only small seasonal tracts – however, changes in varieties and increased transportation costs have created an opportunity for Texas to re-enter the market.
'We trial nearly a dozen new items each year looking for items that help our customers and add value to our programme,' Said Frank Schuster, president at Val Verde Vegetable Co. 'We believe our centralised location and the current economy with its continued increase in costs related to production and freight are starting to give us an advantage over California.'
The harvesting of cauliflower and pencil-sized green onions is now underway with the first shipments already started, with Val Verde currently the only grower in south Texas growing green onions.
'The core of our business will always be our leafy green programme including items like cabbage, collards and kale, but our focus is on customers,' Schuster added 'We want to do more to meet their ever-changing needs and be a one-stop shop for all their vegetable needs.'
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