Spice World Garlic Supplies Consumer Needs

 

By Patrick Cavanaugh, CaliforniaAgToday.com Reporter

Founded in 1949, Spice World farms in the San Joaquin Valley for coast-to-coast distribution of garlic products. Today they are the largest supplier of garlic to America’s supermarkets in all 50 states. This is all part of the bounty that Central Valley farmers supply consumers around throughout the U.S.

Louis Hymel, director of purchasing and marketing at Spice World’s corporate headquarters in Orlando, Fla., noted that farming garlic in the Central Valley is tough with the lack of water availability. “We have a big challenge in finding water and we are moving to different parts of the state where water is,” said Hymel. “We have moved to production areas in the north. It is a challenge for the whole industry.”

“We hope to have more rain and snow this season as we definitely need it,” said Hymel.

Garlic is an interesting back-to-back crop; it was harvested in late summer and the 2015 crop has already been planted. “We never stop from the point of harvesting our seed up in Oregon, then transporting it down, then cracking it for replanting in the San Joaquin Valley,” said Hymel. “We also need to decide on how much to replant in Oregon for the next year’s seed production. Finding the areas where we need to plant for next year’s production it important.”

Spice Word is very diversified in their garlic product line, noted Hymel. “We produce garlic in every form possible from the whole bulbs to whole peeled to ready-to-use garlic to squeezed garlic. We look to what the consumers are looking for in terms of convenience.

“We try to make it so consumers get the garlic in the form that they want and we also provide a lot of recipes,” Hymel said.