Posts Tagged “Mucci Farms”
By Mucci Farms
Huron, Ohio — Mucci Farms announces that they are officially harvesting out of Phase 1 of their 60-acre greenhouse facility in Huron, Ohio. “After years of hard work and strategic planning, we’re excited to hit another milestone in the Mucci Farms story,” said Bert Mucci, CEO of Mucci Farms.
The entire 60-acre facility will be growing primarily Tomatoes On-the-Vine with some snack sized specialty tomatoes. The company also announced that the entire 60-acres will be equipped with supplemental High Powered Sodium (HPS) lighting in order to grow through the winter months allowing them to harvest Ohio grown tomatoes 365 days per year. “We chose tomatoes on-the-vine because of its high demand year round, particularly in the winter months,” said Joe Spano, Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “With grow lights in the entire facility, it was important to have a product that was always in demand.”
Headquartered in Kingsville, Ontario, this is Mucci Farms’ first expansion into the United States, where the majority of their product is distributed. “Expanding into Ohio allows us to reduce the food miles for our US retailers and gives US consumers their own locally grown vegetables,” explained Danny Mucci, President of Mucci International Marketing. “With such a high volume of our product already being shipped to the US, expanding into Huron was strategically done to improve efficiencies with logistics and food safety. Our proximity to market and avoiding a border crossing improves our opportunity to offer consumers with fresh, flavourful products with maximum shelf.” In addition to the remaining 36-acres of greenhouses being built in two remaining phases, Mucci Farms Ohio will include a 272,000 square foot distribution facility that will be operational this summer. Harvesting from the final two phases will begin in the spring of 2019 and 2020.
Owning and Operating over 200-acres of tomato, pepper, cucumber, lettuce and strawberry greenhouses in Kingsville, Ontario, Mucci Farms also markets on behalf of 700-acres across the continent.
By Mucci Farms
KINGSVILLE, ON – Mucci Farms (the “company”) recently announced a large-scale, multi-year investment in Huron, Ohio. The company confirmed it was starting a multi-year, three phase construction project which will cover a total of 60 acres and feature the newest and latest state of the art greenhouses equipped with grow lights which extend the growing season. The constructed facility will also include a 272,000 sq. ft. distribution warehouse to support the company’s growing U.S. customer base. The company has already broken ground on the first phase which is the construction of a 24-acre range and expects produce from this facility will be available as soon as March 2018.
This new, state-of-the-art facility will include the latest grow light technology which simulates sunlight by providing or supplementing the necessary light to optimize plant growth. The use of this grow technology allows for year-round production, keeping our produce – “always in season”.
Mucci Farms already has a sustainable, successful business with a well recognized brand with a number of large U.S. retailers.
Expanding operations to include a U.S. growing facility was strategically done to meet U.S. customer demands for locally grown, year round, fresh and favourful produce.
Making this investment in Ohio allows us to reduce the food miles for our U.S. retailers and gives our U.S. consumers the confidence that they can bring fresh and flavourful Mucci Farms’ produce into their homes all year round.
The company has been actively exploring a number of U.S. expansion opportunities for the past 18 months and the site located in Huron, Ohio was a perfect fit due to its easy access to a number of current and potentially new retailer distribution facilities as well as its proximity to our corporate headquarters in Kingsville, ON.
The company has enjoyed establishing a number of working partnerships during the development stages of this expansion with the City of Huron and Erie County officials and the Company looks forward to what it expects will be a number of promising opportunities for continued community partnerships ahead.
The company anticipates when the first phase of construction is completed it will employ up to 100 full-time positions. The company expects this number will increase to 250 full-time positions by the completion of the third phase of construction.