PHARR — Despite a hazy trade future between the United States and Mexico, a new 60,000-square-foot avocado distribution center is coming to Pharr.
The facility will have cold storage and ripening areas, as well as the ability to bag and repackage avocados. Construction is under way, with completion expected in November.
“We’ve been crossing avocados for 12 years over the Pharr Bridge,” said Dana Thomas, president of Index Fresh, a California-based company that has been working with avocados for more than 100 years. “It’s time to have our own facility there.”
Index Fresh handles avocados from Chile to Peru to Mexico to the United States. This Pharr facility will be specifically for business out of Mexico, Thomas said. He declined to disclose the cost of the facility.
The facility will deliver avocados across the country: the northeast, midwest, mountain states and northwest, Thomas said. Customers will pick up avocados from the Pharr facility and deliver to those states.
Despite a North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiation looming, Index Fresh had no hesitation in the decision to build the plant in Pharr. Adams said he is confident in the business.
“This (avocados) is a growth business,” Adams said, “that’s been growing 10 to 15 percent per year. And this new location in Pharr will help with that.”
