ProducePay and Four Star Fruit Partner with Mexican Growers to Provide Market with Table Grapes During 2024 Low Availability Months.

LOS ANGELES – March 25, 2024 – ProducePay, the agtech company on a mission to transform the global agricultural industry into a more predictable, connected and sustainable supply chain, and Four Star Fruit, one of the world’s largest growers and shippers of table grapes, have joined forces with leading Mexican growers to provide four million cases of table grapes during the months of May and early June, traditionally the lowest volume period of the year. As an extension of their partnership announced in July 2023, the program enables grocers and food service providers to offer consumers high quality table grapes at stable pricing.

To guarantee the availability of high-quality, affordable grapes during these critical months, ProducePay is working with many of the leading Mexican grape producers.

“With committed demand and pricing, ProducePay’s Predictable Commerce Program provides us the stability we need to grow and invest in our business,” said Gilberto Salazar, General Director of Videxport. “And by providing visibility from farm to final destination, we have full line of sight into where our produce is shipped and reduces the risk of rejection upon delivery.”

“This program has the potential to fundamentally transform the table grape supply chain to be more efficient with great financial benefits to growers, marketers and retailers,” Pablo Borquez, CEO of Campos Borquez. “And with greater financial stability, we’re able to invest more into sustainable practices, our people and the communities where we operate.”

“Partnering with these growers to provide the majority of the May and early June fruit from historically-inefficient distribution methods like open markets is a huge win for retailers, growers, grocery shoppers, and our planet,” said Patrick McCullough, CEO of ProducePay. “Each year – and especially during May and early June – retailers are forced to navigate unpredictable supply, quality and pricing of table grapes. Together, we set out to combat this volatility while dramatically reducing food waste. This program will create greater predictability that is welcomed by all supply chain stakeholders.”

Made possible as a result of ProducePay’s Predictable Commerce Program, the offering aims to help national retailers solve two of their biggest challenges: how to meet year-round demand for high quality fresh produce with stable pricing, while managing increasingly more volatile supply chains. Last year, ProducePay and Four Star Fruit launched this first-of-its-kind, comprehensive solution as a way to address the increasing volatility and unpredictability in the table grape supply chain caused by extreme weather events, global pandemics and civil unrest.

“Consistent, quality table grapes can be difficult to procure throughout the year, but we’re changing that,” said Jack Campbell, CEO of Four Star Fruit. “With this partnership, we can now offer a solution to help retailers meet consumer demand during low availability months, creating a more predictable way of doing business for stakeholders in the fresh supply chain – for table grapes and beyond.”

Together these partners are hosting an invitation-only Global Table Grape Summit to bring together the world’s best growers, genetics providers, trade associations and retailers to discuss how to benefit end-consumers with high quality table grapes at stable pricing. Retailers and food service providers interested in the opportunity to attend the Global Table Grape Summit and participate in the program should reach out to info@producepay.com. For more information about ProducePay, please visit ProducePay.com.

Predictable Commerce
ProducePay’s Predictable Commerce Program allows Four Star Fruit to leverage ProducePay’s network of trusted Mexican and South American growers, thereby expanding its production capacity. The program also provides quality enforcement, order tracking and trade mediation to ensure prompt delivery, along with multi-year fixed pricing contracts for retailers, ensuring price stability.

Initially envisioned as a proof of concept, Four Star Fruit and ProducePay sourced 430,000 cases of Mexican table grapes during the 2023 season. The results of this innovative model include:

• 31% fewer days in transit for produce,
• 50% fewer stops along the delivery pathway to retail,
• 80% less volume rejected upon retail arrival (less than a 1% rejection rate),
• 41% fewer days in cold storage, all contributing to a more efficient and sustainable produce supply chain and reducing nearly 1.7 tons of CO2e per ton of produce waste avoided.

“We’ve demonstrated the advantages of our Predictable Commerce Program for table grapes, and we hope this will pave the way for other commodities to adopt this procurement strategy, benefitting the whole fresh produce vertical,” added McCullough.

Founded by Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck, a fourth-generation farmer, ProducePay is eliminating the economic and food waste caused by the volatile, opaque and fragmented nature of today’s global fresh supply chain. The AgTech company’s Predictable Commerce Platform is giving growers and buyers greater control of their business by providing unprecedented access to each other, capital, trading, insights and greater supply chain visibility. Consumers receive fresher produce more efficiently, knowing it is grown and delivered in responsible ways. This transformational approach is unlocking economic value, and creating a more sustainable global fresh produce industry.

ABOUT PRODUCEPAY

Founded by Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck, a fourth-generation farmer, ProducePay is eliminating the economic and food waste caused by the volatile, opaque and fragmented nature of today’s global fresh supply chain. The AgTech company’s Predictable Commerce Platform is giving growers and buyers greater control of their business by providing unprecedented access to each other, capital, trading, insights and greater supply chain visibility. Consumers receive fresher produce more efficiently, knowing it is grown and delivered in responsible ways. This transformational approach is unlocking economic value, and creating a more sustainable global fresh produce industry.

To learn more about ProducePay, please visit ProducePay.com.

ABOUT FOUR STAR FRUIT

Four Star Fruit, Inc. has been in table grape production since 1987, family owned and operated for three generations by the Campbell family. Fields are located throughout the San Joaquin and Coachella Valley, as well as Mexico. Four Star Fruit, Inc. provides several grape varieties, including trademark Pristine®. Four Star Fruit, Inc. caters to all customers, offering grapes in both conventional and organic. Today Four Star Fruit, Inc. grows, packs, and ships more than 2 million boxes of Organic Varieties, 15 million boxes of Domestic Varieties, and 3.3 million boxes of Mexico Varieties per year. To learn more about Four Star Fruit, please visit https://www.fourstarfruit.com.