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New Pomogranate Processor For Tulare County

A start-up pomegranate processing facility in Tulare County is under construction and expected to open by the end of February at 220 South Main Street in Pixley. M&A Foods based in Mountain View Ca, will employ around 20 to start says founder Dr. Aamir A. Farooqui.

The new company will pack high quality pomegranates for the fresh market, ready-to-eat naturally fresh arils – the pulp, make pomegranate gourmet jam, jelly, syrup, and preserves and produce fresh salad pack for fresh market. The jams and jellys are expected to provide” 35-40% revenue of M&A Foods.”

Dr Farooqui says “marketing of pomegranate arils in a way that makes them easy to eat is a way to promote consumption of the fruit. Currently, there are only two competitors – POM Wonderful and Young’s Town, both, unable to meet the market demands,” he believes.

M&A Foods plans to first extract the Arils by hand and once they have enough orders, plan to purchase automatic deseeding plant from Israel. Farooqui, a UC Davis computer scientist and inventor by training – plans a 100,000 sf facility eventually. He has pomegranate trees in the Alpaugh area.

There are about 4500 acres of pomegranates in Tulare County and some 30,000 acres Valleywide.In 1980 there were only 2500 acres before the health benefits of  the ancient fruit were widely known.

As an aside, a battle has been joined in the past year between industry leader Pom Wonderful, owned by Stewart Resnick,and the US government over health claims. A few days ago the  Federal Trade Commission upheld a judge’s finding that the owners of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice made false claims about the health benefits of their products  – an assertion that Pom Wonderful rejected.

The M&A company’s website explains both the draw and obstacles involved with consuming pomegranates.

“Pomegranate is a natural bounty fruit. Many studies have demonstrated the nutritional and medicinal properties of this fruit. However, it is difficult to peel and extract the edible parts (called Arils) and this reduces its acceptance by the consumer in favor of other fruits that are easier to prepare. Marketing of pomegranate arils in a way that makes them easy to eat is a way to promote consumption of the fruit.
In order to solve this problem M&A Foods plans to produce ready-to-eat naturally fresh arils, free of internal membranes or skin and other unwanted material hygienically packed. The market developed by POM Wonderful is mature enough to accept this product. The aril removal on commercial scale is a very sophisticated process and requires extra care in the de-seeding and packaging steps. Currently, there are only two competitors namely POM Wonderful and Young’s Town, both, are unable to meet the market demands.
During the off-season when no Pomegranate is available, M&A Foods plan to produce fresh cut fruit salad. The market demand and the availability of the fruits will decide this segment.”
Resumes Of Key Players:
Dr. Aamir A. Farooqui, has a successful carrier of building Hi-Tech companies from ground-zero. He is a technical leader and entrepreneur who can turn around technology into business. He completed his Ph.D in Computer and Electrical Engineering in a record period of two years from the University of California, Davis. He worked at multi-national companies and owns several key patents in the field of Computer architecture and Video processing. One of his key ventures is Bluesteel networks, which was sold to Broadcom in 1999. For the past few years he is focusing his efforts on the sustainable farming practices and developing business around farm produce. In this respect he also launched an ecommerce marketplace www.myhomeproduce.com that enables farmers and small cottage food industries to sell their products to millions of consumers throughout US.
Marka Nakata – CEO: Expert in Sales and Marketing and Farm advisor. Accomplished and agile Market Strategy Executive with proven experience in identifying, analyzing and exploiting market  opportunities. Creative and multi-disciplinary executive with conservative approach. Strong supporter of Natural and Healthy Foods. Proven leader with outstanding relationship building skills, strong communication abilities and exceptional emotional intelligence that excels in matrix and hierarchical structures.

Dr Farooqui says Tulare County has been very supportive of the project – BEST County to do Business – and notes their facility is in the Economic Development Zone, which will reduce taxes. The location is in close proximity to pomegranate farms but just three hours drive to Northern or Southern CA markets.

For the county’s new economic development office – led by Mike Washam – the news is especially sweet – considering the firm discovered Tulare County through the county’s new economic  development website and was guided through all the approvals by the county office.

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