Marco DiMare

DiMare Fresh
Indio, California

"You have to be nuts to be in this business."

Farm

DiMare Fresh

DiMare Fresh, established in 1931, produces tomatoes, citrus, melons and vegetables in their vertically integrated company.

DiMare History

From Hale Street to Quincy market in 1930, the DiMare brand has been synonymous with fresh produce. The three brothers, Dominic, Joseph and Anthony built an agricultural company that today reaches from coast to coast with stops in California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and of course, Massachusetts.

Today, Marco DiMare heads-up the company’s citrus operations in Indio, California.

“We started in Boston 80 years ago,” DiMare said. “I’m more active in the farm side here in California.” Having dealt with last year’s Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak in peppers, which was originally said to be associated with tomatoes, DiMare sums up farming simply.

Why stay in the family business?

DiMare was destined to be in the industry. “They put a broom in my hands when I was seven [to sweep up the processing facilities],” DiMare remembers. “When I was in high school I started working in the fields.”

After earning his bachelor’s in history from the University of Colorado in 1991, DiMare went on to earn his MBA from the University of Southern California.

DiMare has chosen to stay in the family businesses for a number of reasons, but not the least of which is the fellowship enjoys within the industry and within the company.

“I think it’s the people,” DiMare explained why he loves working in agriculture. “People in agriculture are real sensible. They are good to be around.”

He smiles as he continues, “It’s definitely not a boring job; no two days are ever the same.”

In the Face of Crisis

In the summer of 2008 the tomato industry was dealt a great blow when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent out and advisory to all consumer to refrain from eating certain types of tomatoes. This advisory sent shockwaves throughout the industry as sales began to decline. In the end, there was no Salmonella outbreak tied to tomatoes, in fact the outbreak wasn’t even associated with domestically grown product. Nevertheless, as with all outbreaks, it was the industry left to pick up the pieces.

“As a company, corporately, it had a tremendous impact,” DiMare said. “A lot of our vendors began pulling tomatoes from the menu. We felt like we were isolated and unjustly accused.”

DiMare understands why the government reacted the way it did, but believes there has got to be a better way. Currently, food safety is an expensive proposition and, in the end, it was all for not, as the government rushed to judgment.

“I think that our food [fresh produce nationally] is safe,” DiMare explained. “Our food supply is the safest in the world.” At DiMare Fresh, “every one of our [processing] facilities are inspected bi-annually.”

DiMare’s solution would be to streamline the process. He feels federal inspectors and/or guidelines should be employed to ensure uniformity and to create one standard that everyone must adhere to. He also feels that the government should rely on the experts, the industry to help with the investigation and/or trace-back of a contaminated product.

“What they don’t do is incorporate the info we have in the industry,” said DiMare. “We at DiMare can track it back to the seed lot … we can have that information within 24 hours.”