Calavo Growers, Inc. is an international consumer goods and farm products company. It packages, and distributes avocados and other fruits, as well as their fresh prepared food to restaurants, stores, and individual customers worldwide.[4]
Based in Santa Paula, California, its avocado production is cultivated throughout the state of California, as well as in South and Central America.
Calavo Growers was established in 1924 as an agricultural cooperative and was instrumental in launching the California avocado industry. In 2013, the firm was listed on Forbes' America's Best Small Company list.[5]
History
Calavo Growers, Inc., was founded on January 21, 1924, as the California Avocado Growers' Exchange. Due to overwhelming interest in the avocado, many California growers had planted avocado seeds that had originated in Mexico. Although slow to mature, by 1923, those avocado trees were producing a large enough crop to be marketed. The problem was the lack of a marketing outlet. The founders studied grower cooperatives that were doing well at the time, such as the California Fruit Growers Exchange, and adopted features that would work best for the avocado industry.[6]