Jaime Chamberlain is one of about 150 members of the fresh produce association of the Americas.
“We’ve been importing Mexican fruits and vegetables through the Nogales/Arizona port of entry for over a century,” says Jaime Chamberlain, Chamberlain Distributing. “And we’re responsible for feeding a lot of North America, something we’re very proud of in this community.”
Right off the interstate in Nogales, you’ll find Chamberlain Distributing. And it’s not a small operation. “We’re bringing in around four and a half-billion dollars worth of fruits and vegetables from all over Mexico from as far south as Oaxaca. But our main areas of import are from Jalisco and Sonora,” says Chamberlain. “We’re bringing in tomatoes, bell peppers cucumbers, beans. Just a lot of the traditional vegetables that you’ll see in your grocery store every single day.”
According to Chamberlain, being a distribution hub in Nogales gives them an advantage. “We actually make and build loads here, so a customer from Chicago or Philly or Toronto may call us up in the morning and say – ‘I’d like four pallets of squash, three pallets of beans’. And we build that load here.”
According to kgun9.com, Chamberlain Distributing has been doing this for more than a century, and because of that, they have customers in foodservice, wholesale and change stores. And the distribution reaches far beyond the communities of Southern Arizona.