Santa Teresa lands two chihuahua food distribution operations

Rio Blue Produce and Sierra Madre Produce, both with operations in Chihuahua, Mexico, have selected Santa Teresa to grow their North American markets, the Garrity Group Public Relations said in an April 12 news release.

The two companies will occupy a combined 92,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space in Santa Teresa, the news release said.

Rio Blue Produce, an international onion producer, will hire 20 employees to facilitate packaged onions, watermelons and chile peppers in a 60,000-square-foot food distribution warehouse in Santa Teresa. The company was founded in 2016 and is expecting to make 1,500 truck crossings across the United States-Mexico border at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry (STPOE) annually. 

 “Santa Teresa is ideally located for us to conduct our cross-border business between the U.S. and Mexico,” Rio Blue President Denver Penner told Garrity Group in the news release. “Its superior infrastructure and fast-crossing port of entry are ideal for our business.”

Sierra Madre Produce will hire 12 employees to work in its 32,000-square-foot warehouse. The Nuevo Casas Grande region produce company will import onions, chiles and tomatillos grown in Mexico.

“We are coming to Santa Teresa because of its locational advantages and fast commercial crossings at STPOE,” said Sierra Madre Produce President Steven Romney. “And the overriding factor that sealed our choice of Santa Teresa is the overweight cargo zone (a 12-mile overweight cargo zone that allows trucks to enter New Mexico from Mexico for a single $250 annual permit), which will provide us with significant logistical savings.”

“Fernando Thome’s leadership of STPOE has resulted in cargo crossing in 10-30 minutes compared to two to six hours in El Paso and Tucson,” said Jerry Pacheco, senior business advisor with the New Mexico Partnership. “When you consider the border efficiencies, availability and affordability of industrial space and access to interstates, rail and an international airport, companies are making the decision to locate warehouse and distribution operations in Santa Teresa.”

The New Mexico Partnership is designated by the State of New Mexico as the single point of contact for locating businesses in New Mexico, the Garrity Group news release said.

Garrity Group said Santa Teresa offers other important advantages, including access to the Union Pacific Intermodal Facility; regular 737 cargo jet service at Santa Teresa Jetport; Port of Entry in El Paso, which is said has a wait time of two to six hours; and companies’ ability to reach 75 percent of the U.S. population in two days.

“These projects add to a growing cluster of our value-added agriculture industry in Doña Ana County, enhancing the visibility of logistics to further service existing, as well as support the attraction of new, food processing and manufacturing operations,” said Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA) President and CEO Davin Lopez. 

For more information, visit https://rioblueproduce.com.