By Sara Atencio-Gonzales, The Paper. – A new food aggregation center opening in Albuquerque’s South Valley aims to give small and medium-sized New Mexico farmers and their homegrown food products greater access to schools, senior centers and other institutional markets.
The Delicious New Mexico Aggregation Center is scheduled to open Sept. 18 as an addition to the South Valley Economic Development Center. The facility will provide a place to process fresh produce while helping connect local growers and potential buyers.
“So, day to day, what we’ll be doing is washing, cutting and packaging produce. The point of our facility is to bridge the gap between the markets and the local farmers, and to create more accessibility for them,” says Luis Nunez, facilities manager for the Delicious New Mexico Aggregation Center.
Delicious New Mexico already provides refrigerated transportation and distribution services for small and mid-sized farms and food producers across the state. The organization uses refrigerated vehicles to consolidate pickups from multiple farms, helping producers save time and transportation costs.
The new aggregation center will expand on those services by providing processing capabilities that Nunez explains many farmers do not have access to themselves…