We have a beautiful Sunflower crop coming to harvest at our farms in Baja, Mexico. This south of the border endeavor is a relatively new enterprise for Sun Valley and is spearheaded by Roberto Gomez. Roberto has been farming sunflowers in Baja for about seven years and has been directly involved in the floral industry for most of his life. He started growing his own Sunflowers in Baja for a very specific need. His bouquet company, Pacifica Farms, was buying in a huge amount of sunflowers for bouquets and consumer bunches. Roberto was consistently disappointed with the quality he was getting from other sunflower growers.
He found that other growers did not have solid “Cold Chain Management” systems in place and that their growing styles didn’t lead to a consistent crop. Consistency is one of the keys to a successful flower growing or selling operation, this seems like a no brainer but there was a hole in the market for consistent, high quality, floral grade sunflowers.
In the classic entrepreneurial model, Roberto headed down to Baja to grow the best available sunflowers himself. The benefits of controlling the production process and maintaining superior cold chain management led to a very successful endeavor, and ironically this success led to Roberto and Sun Valley building a relationship based on growing techniques and sales opportunities.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Sun Valley Group's Flower Talk