Pure Flavor, Canada, opened the doors to its Fort Valley, Ga., greenhouse facility, which grows tomatoes on the vine, sweet red cocktail tomatoes, long English cucumbers and mini cucumbers.

“When we put the first shovel in the ground 18 months ago, we knew we had our work cut out for us, as a project of this scope had never been built in in the Southeast,” says Jamie Moracci, president. “We have a strong leadership team in place who have embraced the opportunity to create impact with a great product, [and] the feedback from customers has been fantastic.”

The greenhouse was built in 3 phases on 25 acres over 5 years. Phase 1 was completed in late fall 2018 with the first crops of cucumbers and tomatoes picked in early December 2018.

The new greenhouse has also enabled the vertically integrated vegetable company to service key retail and foodservice partners in the Southeast.

“Our team has done a great job in Fort Valley getting our first growing season under our belts. Learning how a crop will react to the environment has been a great experience to date, and our growers are adapting it to ensure the plants our producing in an optimal environment,” says Matt Mastronardi, executive vice president.

“When it comes to bringing new products to market like our new Georgia tomatoes and cucumbers, we have embraced the Georgia Grown brand to ensure that our customers know where the product is grown and who grew it,” says Chris Veillon, chief marketing officer.

Pure Flavor also announced plans to construct a new 60,000-square-foot distribution center, located just minutes from the greenhouse facility. Construction is scheduled to wrap up later this spring. The new distribution center will serve as a consolidation point and provide a greater assortment of Pure Flavor greenhouse-grown vegetables to retailers and foodservice partners in the southeastern U.S. region.