December 4, 2014
More than 30 years ago, Jaime Garza launched Bebo Distributing Co. Inc. in Pharr, TX, as an importer of fine foods into Mexico.
That business model worked for a while, but his son Jimmy Garza said the devaluation of the Mexican peso in the early 1990s caused the company to change its strategy.
“We became a grower and shipper and started distributing throughout the United States,” he said.
Today Jaime Garza is still president of the family-owned operation, which includes his three sons. “Like many companies we are family-owned,” said Jimmy Garza.
Jaime Garza had many years in the produce industry as a buyer in Mexico before launching his own company. Those contacts developed over the years served him well as he went into business for himself. Jimmy Garza said the company now grows crops on both sides of the border and has five core categories: tomatoes, cucumbers, colored bell peppers, eggplant and mixed specialty peppers.
“We have a huge range of growers throughout mainland Mexico,” he said. “We are mostly in central Mexico in the Guanajuato area, but we also have deals in west Mexico.”
The company is currently in the process of expanding its Pharr cold-storage facility to 70,000 square feet from 50,000 square feet.
“We are adding space in storage, processing and shipping,” he said. “We have outgrown our space and probably should have expanded before as we have had to outsource for some of our storage.”
Speaking to The Produce News Nov. 17, Jimmy Garza said the company was at the tail end of its central Mexican deal and would start in western Mexico shortly with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. He said it has been a very good year in terms of markets and he expects the west Mexico deal to be fairly normal in terms of volume.
“Right now it looks like it is going to be a normal year with good production, but it is a little early to tell,” he said.
While Bebo Distributing sells to customers all over the United States, Jimmy Garza said that “being in Texas, which is a very big market, we tend to ship primarily to Texas and other cities in the Midwest. Those are the markets closest to us and we can provide them with the freshest vegetables.”
Originally posted on Produce News