May 29, 2007

New Distribution Center Empowers Growers

A new distribution center in Florida packed up to 50,000 pounds of blueberries a day during the peak season and has the potential to pack even more when it reaches its full capacity, said Jerry D’Amore, vice president of agriculture for Clear Springs.

The Clear Springs Distribution Center is in Bartow, Fla., the home town of the agribusiness and residential development company. D’Amore runs the center, which opened in March.

The center, designed to operate 365 days a year, shipped 250,000 pounds of fresh fruit a week during its first blueberry season. It’s geared to ship up to 6 million pounds in an entire season, which runs from mid-March to the end of May in Florida. Blueberries aren’t the only focus, however. The center also handles strawberries and specialty crops like cherry and grape tomatoes, D’Amore said.

The center offers a smorgasbord of services to growers – cooling, receiving, grading, packing, storing, shipping, palletizing – in a number of combinations. It was built after Clear Springs, which grows blueberries, was approached by a group of local growers who sought the company’s distribution and marketing services. The company purchased an old juice concentrate facility last August and started a major renovation. The refinished building is 103,000 square feet, D’Amore said.

The center serves 29 growers – who own anything from half an acre to 40 acres – and wants to bring in crops from other regions as time goes by, especially South American crops, D’Amore said.

Clear Springs has strategic alliances with major produce marketers like California Giant, which can aid growers when it comes to national sales, he said.

The center employs from 20 to 60 people, depending on the flow of crops. Its state-of-the-art equipment is a real advantage for growers. Most machines will fill an entire clamshell package by volume and end up putting more fruit in than necessary. Clear Springs’ machines fill clamshells by weight rather than volume, so there’s no overfill. It’s more exact, D’Amore said.

“Our desire is to be as efficient as possible and allow as much money as possible to go back to the farm,” he said.

A specialized produce handling information system, which tracks fruit from the field to the consumer, provides traceability for food safety, according to the company.

Clear Springs owns 18,000 acres of land between Tampa and Orlando and farms 4,200 of those acres. Agriculture is an important part of the company’s business, and the new center is part of that commitment, according to D’Amore.

“Everything starts with the farm,” he said.