COALINGA, CA - Is a dish truly complete without a clove of garlic…or five? Without this trusty crop, much of our lives would be flavorless and our dishes bleak; I shudder just thinking about it. Luckily, the U.S. garlic season is underway with Spice World’s largest California crop ever hitting retail shelves now!

I spoke with Chris Whitson, Senior VP of Sales, and Arden Caneza Laughter, VP of Sales, to learn more about its record harvest taking place in the San Joaquin Valley.

“We are in the middle of our 2018 new crop California garlic season. Currently we are harvesting, grading, and packing the garlic, and we’ve already begun shipping new crop to our customers,” Arden shared with me. “Quality is excellent. Our early variety garlic that came out late June was really pretty, and now we’re moving into our late variety and looking forward to another round of good results.”

While California has been enduring a few heat waves and fires of late, Arden and Chris assured me that except for a few bouts of rain, Mother Nature didn’t tamper with their beloved crop this season.

“This is our largest harvest ever as we reach our goals of providing our customers with our California-grown garlic year around. Not all customers have the same needs; therefore, we will also offer other global options so we can meet each customer’s specific requests,” Chris explained. “Every year since the drought, we have increased planting, harvesting numbers, and acreage. The market on California garlic is strong, and as a result, we continue to grow more garlic each year to meet the rising demand. We expect another great season as more consumers seek Spice World California garlic.”

Spice World is led by multiple generations of Caneza family members, who continue to operate the business out of its headquarters in Coalinga, California, and Orlando, Florida. As operations and market share continue to grow, the company is expanding its family by bringing on a new partner, Palladium Equity Partners.

“Our new partnership with Palladium will position Spice World to continue our 70-year legacy as a family-operated business doing what we love: growing garlic and serving our customers; we are very excited about the future,” Arden told me.

Chris added, “As ‘America’s Favorite’ garlic brand, we are always striving to increase resources that will lead to improved efficiencies and creative innovations, along with health and wellness initiatives for consumers and in the workplace.”

With conventional, organic, and fresh ready-to-use and squeeze product options, Spice World is one to watch as garlic continues to capture taste buds and hearts around the world.

Spice World