Main Street Produce, situated in the fertile Santa Maria Valley of California, farms its own product through its sister company, Freshway Farms. The company started off 2021 with some big news regarding its strawberry segment.
“We are a people- and customer-centric organization, and we felt like the best way we can support our people and customers was by expanding our strawberry acreage,” said Roger Privett III, sales and business development manager for the Santa Maria, CA-based company.
To support this expanded acreage, Main Street Produce has decided to bring on some new customers, while also expanding on its current customer base this coming year.
“We are working diligently to allow our customers’ needs to pull along our increased production and not the other way around,” Privett said.
He noted that three things make Main Street and Freshway Farms unique and special — the people, the quality of service and its structure.
“Our employees are our family, and the Allen family has spent a lifetime supporting and building that culture,” Privett said. “This culture or the ‘Main Street Way’ allows us to be an organization of quality. Quality not only of our strawberries but the quality of our personnel.”
Additionally, he described the organization as one that puts service at the forefront, both for customers and the community.
“The third thing is the vertical integration that Main Street Produce and Freshway Farms have,” Privett said. “From the farm to our cooling facility and every step in between, we control and handle every step of the way, and that is the Main Street difference.”
Naturally, the pandemic has forced the company to keep improving and reinventing itself.
“The world, and our industry have had to make drastic changes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Privett said. “The most drastic adjustment has been increased flexibility necessary to stay on top of new and changing guidelines for employee safety. Many of these new procedures we plan to keep going forward. We have seen additional growth amongst our retail partners. The pandemic has allowed us to review our company as a whole and see where we can continue to improve.”
Still, he believes the biggest challenge now, and over the next few years, will be to ensure a balance between the farmers’ cost to grow and the price at retail.
“Over the last five years, labor costs have risen substantially for both farmers and retailers,” Privett said. “Increasing efficiencies have absorbed many of these costs. To sustain the industry, we need to find ways to market at higher prices. Partnering with retailers that are empathetic to this is crucial to us overcoming these challenges.”
Main Street’s roots are deep in the Santa Maria Valley, in farming, cooling, sales, and marketing.
“In 1976, Alton Allen began farming in Santa Maria Valley with just five acres of strawberries and the help of his three young sons,” Privett said. “Alton grew the business by producing a top-quality product and establishing a reputation for uncompromising integrity.”
Today, its top item far and away is the one-pound strawberry clamshell, with about 90 percent of its customers asking for those, though the two-pound strawberry clamshell is increasing in popularity amongst retailers.
“The secret to good partnerships is trust and a bit of give and take,” Privett said. “Neither side can feel like they are getting one over on the other. When one side benefits, it benefits the partnership as a whole. When partnerships are mutually beneficial, we will see an increase in positive customer interactions and increased sales.”
Working in Santa Maria has been ideal for the company, as it has a unique climate that makes it very suitable for the agriculture industry.
“Santa Maria has become a strong produce town because of its ability to support the agriculture industry,” Privett said. “Santa Maria was built on agriculture and takes great pride in feeding the country both now and into the future.”
Elsewhere around the company, Main Street Produce just completed installation on a 1,631-panel solar project that will produce 0.605 megawatts of power with an expected life span of 30 years. The energy produced will offset about 35 percent of the projected electricity needs of its 32,000-square-foot cooling facility.
“As farmers, it is important for us to be good stewards of the earth, adding solar to our cooling facility just fits in with these core values,” Privett said.
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March 29, 2021 at 03:05PM
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