SALINAS, CA - Vegetable grower, shipper, and all-around onion expert, Coastline Family Farms has announced the formation of a new joint venture with Madison Ranches. The venture will combine the dry onion growing and packing expertise of both companies, now to be called Madison-Cox Onions.

“My family has been growing red, yellow, and white dry onions in the Imperial Valley of California for over 35 years,” said Coastline Family Farms CEO, Larry Cox. “With the dynamics of the produce marketplace, we wanted to consolidate our onion sales under the Coastline Family Farms structure and develop an all-year-round onion program on the West Coast. We have known the Madison family for some time, they have a reputation for producing high quality premium onions in the Hermiston region of Oregon and knew they would be the right partner to help expand our production footprint.”

“Larry, myself, and our teams began discussing working together in the Pacific Northwest last fall,” commented Jake Madison, CEO and 4th generation farmer for Madison Ranches. “We are very excited about the opportunity to put together a quality-oriented, year-round onion program. Our two family farming companies are very similar, which helps build a strong foundation of trust, shared values, and a focus on a customer-centric business model.”

While Coastline Family Farms has locations in Salinas, CA; Yuma, AZ; and Brawley, CA, the new joint venture will produce red and yellow bulb onions in Hermiston, OR, close to Madison Ranches’ Echo, OR, headquarters. The first harvest is set to begin in September of this year and will ship through March 2020. Madison Ranches will be responsible for all production, storage, packing, and shipping.

“We started construction this week on our new packing and storage facility which will feature a state-of-the-art, optical grading, sorting, and packing line, capable of meeting the needs of our clients with onion bags ranging from 10-50 pounds,” said Jonathan Miller, General Manager of the Madison-Cox Onions venture, in a press release. “We focused the design on automation and state-of-the-art equipment in order to deliver a premium product to our customers.”

Onion and vegetable sales veterans Tonya Giotta, Vice President for Foodservice Sales at Coastline Family Farms, and Carly Kwak-Bauch, Vice President of Product and Channel Development, will work together to develop a new dry onion business unit.

“Coastline Family Farms will handle the sales and marketing for the joint venture,” said Giotta. “The addition of the Madison-Cox joint venture in Oregon gives Coastline a year-round, integrated West Coast supply base. This enables us to provide national and regional foodservice operators, distributors, wholesalers, and retail clients with a consistent year-round supply of premium dry onions.”

Will this merging of onion know-how result in profits? AndNowUKnow will keep you posted.

Coastline Family Farms Madison Ranches