George Boskovich

Boskovich Farms
Oxnard, California

Words to live by

“To grow in farming, I believe you have to do a little bit of everything from the bottom up.”

Farm History

Boskovich Farms

In 1915, Stephen Boskovich began farming in the San Fernando Valley, selling his crops at the Los Angeles Wholesale Market. His sons helped out on the ranch. By the 1940s, two of Stephens sons, John and George returned from WWII and began working for their other brother Phillip who had been growing green onions and carrots on seven acres of land. Eventually, the three brothers formed Boskovich Brothers Produce Growers. In the 1960s, the Boskovich brothers moved their farming operation to Newhall/Saugus, Calif., growing green onions exclusively on a 145 acre ranch.
By the 1970’s, three of Stephen's grandsons: George, Jr., Phillip, Jr. and Joe, joined the family business, became partners, and formed Boskovich Farms, Inc. After growing green onions for 25 years, George Jr. recognized it was time for a change.
The consolidation for products and steady supplies available year-round attracted many new customers, and the continuing success encouraged the family to broaden its product line even more. By the mid 1980's, Boskovich Farms was producing more than 30 different vegetable crops, twelve months of the year, from four locations in California, Arizona and Mexico.

The Romance of Farming

“To grow in farming, I believe you have to do a little bit of everything from the bottom up,” Boskovich says.

And so he did...

“I grew up on a farm, and I didn’t want to be a farmer because farming to me it was having to drive a tractor all day and dropping fertilizer in to a hoper; it wasn’t very romantic,” he continued. But as the years went by and George Jr. parlayed part-time work in the field and driving the tractor into running the packing shed and cutting his teeth in sales, he would find the romance in farming.

From a boy bunching onions to a young man driving a tractor, to a salesman, Boskovich laid a foundation that would serve him well. Beyond his work experience, it is an inherent desire to succeed, to progress, to try new things that set him apart.

After everything, the romance of farming, with all of its challenges, risks and hard work, is now evident to George.

Innovation

“The conditions of farming are constantly changing, and you have to adapt; you have to have the right attitude for farming.”

Boskovich Farms has earned a reputation for being one of the more flexible and progressive vertically integrated family farms in California.

Food Safety

“There’s always been a need for food safety,” Boskovich said. “We take food safety very seriously.”

Food safety continues to be a hot topic in the media and in Washington, D.C., but long before the 2006 E. coli outbreak or the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak last year, George Boskovich was instituting Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) in the field. Boskovich Farms was not the only farm ahead of the curve on food safety, but George Jr. maintains food safety has always been a priority.

Value Added

With technology allowing better results with fresh-cut vegetables, Boskovich later purchased an established fresh-cut processing facility, which became Boskovich Fresh-Cut. This processing division enabled the company to provide top quality value-added products for retail and foodservice, and has become the company's most rapidly growing product line. The company’s headquarters and processing facility has since been consolidated, but the move to value added products is another example of how George Jr. has continued a progressive approach to farming.

Growing Regions & Markets

“We saw the need to move to other areas; we had to move to places like Riverside County. In Parris and Hemet, (California) we grew onions and brought them in to Saugus. Then the idea that we could expand our product line brought us to Salinas,” Boskovich recalled. Adding to green onions, George and his brothers added radishes to the product line and sold them to their green onion customers. As the brothers began adding products, they began to recognize a budding economic disadvantage to growing green onions in California. And so, the firm that had been devoted to one commodity since before WWII was not only adding new products, but was about to take a bold step – one that would take them south of the border and eventually around the world.

Moving Boskovich Farms into Mexico was more than merely an expansion, it was the beginning of a trend. George was able to recognize that unless he remained flexible and altered the way they operated, the family business may not have survived.

Sustainability

George Jr. continues to set the standard as a progressive farmer even today as Boskovich farms takes steps to ensure its facilities and practices are as efficient as possible. He takes sustainability very seriously.

“When we built our processing plant, we did so in such a way as to save energy … irrigation? We are using less and less row irrigation each year,” Boskovich explained.

On life

“I don’t know why you do the things you do in life, but I don’t want to quit yet.”