Crystal Valley From Field To Fork

Distribution


At Crystal Valley Foods, we are committed to providing our customers the highest quality products and we know that a critical part of this is getting the product to our customers in a timely manner while maintaining the cold chain. We have two distribution centers on both coasts as well as long term partnerships with 3rd party facilities in order to help service our customers across North America.

CRYSTAL VALLEY FOODS MIAMI

Crystal Valley Foods Miami is our largest facility and it is located less than one mile from Miami International Airport. This facility has repack capabilities, 18 loading doors, and a pre-cooler that has the capacity of cooling up to 7000 boxes of fresh asparagus in 2.5 hours. We are SQF 2000 Level II Certified.

CRYSTAL VALLEY WEST

In order for us to better service the growing West Coast foodservice and retail demand for specialty products, we opened Crystal Valley West in 2012.  Our facility is located at the Los Angeles Wholesale Terminal Market which enables us to offer more regional, specialty products from various partners. This facility has cross docking and storage capabilities and an expanded product line from some of our key Mexican grower contacts.

3rd PARTY FACILITIES

Crystal Valley uses 3rd party receiving facilities in McAllen / Pharr, Texas for Mexican asparagus, snow peas, and Guatemalan specialty items. These facilities are all operating with HACCP programs in place and have SQF or Primus Food Safety Certifications. We have also recently expanded entry points in San Luis, Los Angeles, South Florida, and the Northeast enabling us to cover the country from coast to coast.

Shipping and Logistics

Crystal Valley’s harvest programs are closely coordinated with logistics, using the appropriate air and ocean freight carriers to maintain both the cold chain and optimize shelf life upon arrival in the market. We have air freight daily from source to Crystal Valley facilities as well as weekly ocean carrier arrivals and, when appropriate, some products are shipped by road.

We also have experienced personnel that can help arrange full load or LTL shipments for our customers if needed.

Food Safety and Qualtiy Assurance

Crystal Valley’s food safety policies and procedures are the cornerstone of our business. Our professional and experienced quality assurance team and management systems at our facilities and farms ensure that our product is always of the best, premium quality. It is our number one priority.

All of our operations follow internationally accepted best practices and food safety, environmental, and sustainability standards that have been set by the industry. We have thorough internal and external audits to make sure that Crystal Valley and our partners are always compliant. Below is a list of some of our certifications.

Certifications and Compliance

  • SQF Code Edition 7.2 Level II- Miami Facility
  • HACCP-based Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) Food Safety Certified- Crystal Valley West
  • Traceability Program
  • HACCP Programs
  • Global GAP Certified Farms
  • Federal Regulatory Compliance (FDA, USDA, CBP )
  • FSMA Compliant
  • Internal training programs on quality and safety

For more detailed information please contact us at info@crystalvalleyfoods.com

Social and Environmental Sustainability

At Crystal Valley, we are committed to minimizing the impact our business has on the environment as well as to supporting the health, wellness, and everyday lives of our employees.  It is important that we bring healthful, high quality products to the marketplace in a responsible manner to help support future generations as well as to support the communities where we operate.

Throughout our supply chain we make sure that we have established policies that ensure the protection of the environment. For example, we have strict waste management and recycling programs in place and we make sure that we source packaging that has as little impact on the environment as possible. We also recognize that soil and water are both important resources that we rely on heavily in this business so we take efforts to protect them.

Environmental sustainability is just part of the equation and at Crystal Valley we also recognize how important our employees and our surrounding community are to our success and we make sure to contribute to the growth and development of the communities where we operate. For example, we support local food banks and organizations and give back when and where we can.

Sourcing and Growing Regions

Crystal Valley provides a wide array of specialty fruits and vegetables year-round. In addition to our core line, which includes asparagus, baby vegetables, peas, and beans, our procurement team is constantly working to source the most unique, quality products in order to provide our customers with a variety of options throughout the year. In 2016, we were the 3rd largest asparagus importer in the United States and as a pioneer in baby vegetable imports, we are the largest specialty importer out of Guatemala.

At Crystal Valley Foods, we work with key grower-partners in the US, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and the Dominican Republic, to form strong alliances and partnerships focused on long term sustainability. We control the source and logistics through these long-term partnerships to make sure all of the product getting to our customers is of the highest quality and integrity. With an integrated supply chain, we are one of the few vertically integrated specialty companies in the US and we own farms and packing houses in order to complement our grower programs.

Our sourcing program begins with planning the crop cycles with our partners and this has allowed us to plan production in order to deliver consistent, quality product.  In order to adjust to the increased volume required to meet today’s demand, along with the focus on limiting shrink and optimizing cold chain management, the harvest and packing operations in Latin America have made huge advancements in the sophistication of their farming, harvest, and post-harvest programs. Packing facilities are operated under strict sanitation and hygiene regulations and the majority include in-house microbiological labs for routine swab testing of process surfaces and basic product testing. This is supplemented via 3rd party laboratories for pesticide residue screen testing. Cold chain management is also one of the core responsibilities of the packing facilities, besides proper grading, selection, and packing.

Core Growing Regions

  • Peru
  • Mexico
  • Guatemala
  • Dominican Republic
  • USA
  • Chile
  • Argentina