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has been under Paul’s stewardship that the company has grown and expanded exponentially. Under the banner of Freshway Farms, the Allens grow about 1,000 acres of vegetables and 400 acres of berries. They sell the output through Main Street Produce and continue to offer cooling services to many other growers. Alexandra is a person who likes to get involved and as such she has jumped with both feet into the produce industry. “It was a big learning curve as production agriculture is much different than my previous work,” she said. “But there are many legal and environmental issues that I deal with every day just as every other grower has to do.” She has been on the board of both her local grower-shipper association as well as with California Women for Agriculture. She is very excited about her new position on the Western Growers Board of Directors. “I’ve only been on the board a short time, but I love the tremendous passion that the board members have for this industry.” For fun, she has returned to the horse community as she and Paul now own a couple of draft horses. The Budweiser commercial features those type of horses, which is how Alexandra explains the breed to a novice. Like in the commercial, draft horses are comfortable doing hard work like pulling a plow or a beer wagon.

WESTERN GROWERS OFFICERS – 2020

RYAN TALLEY, Chairman ALBERT KECK, Senior Vice Chair STUART WOOLF, Vice Chair CAROL CHANDLER, Treasurer VICTOR SMITH, Executive Secretary DAVE PUGLIA, President DIRECTORS – 2020 GEORGE J. ADAM Innovative Produce, Santa Maria, California ALEXANDRA ALLEN Main Street Produce, Santa Maria, California KEVIN S. ANDREW Vanguard International, Bakersfield, California ROBERT K. BARKLEY Barkley Ag Enterprises LLP,Yuma, Arizona STEPHEN J. BARNARD Mission Produce, Inc., Oxnard, California BARDIN E. BENGARD Bengard Ranch, Salinas, California GEORGE BOSKOVICH III Boskovich Farms, Oxnard, California NEILL CALLIS Turlock Fruit Company,Turlock, California DON CAMERON Terranova Ranch, Helm, California EDWIN A. CAMP D. M. Camp & Sons, Bakersfield, California CAROL CHANDLER Chandler Farms LP, Selma, California LAWRENCEW. COX Coastline Family Farms, Salinas, California STEPHEN F. DANNA Danna Farms, Inc.,Yuba City, California JOHN C. D’ARRIGO D’Arrigo Bros. Co. of California, Salinas, California THOMAS DEARDORFF II Deardorff Family Farms, Oxnard, California FRANZW. DE KLOTZ Richard Bagdasarian Inc., Mecca, California SAMUEL D. DUDA Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Inc., Salinas, California CATHERINE A. FANUCCHI Tri-Fanucchi Farms Inc., Bakersfield, California DAVID L. GILL Rio Farms, King City, California BRANDON A. GRIMM Grimmway Farms, Arvin, California JOHN JACKSON Beachside Produce, LLC, Nipomo, California A. G. KAWAMURA Orange County Produce, LLC, Irvine, California ALBERT KECK Hadley Date Gardens,Thermal, California FRED P. LOBUE, JR. LoBue Bros., Inc., Lindsay, California FRANK MACONACHY Ramsay Highlander, Inc., Gonzales, California JOHN S. MANFRE Frank Capurro and Son, Moss Landing, California STEPHEN MARTORI III Martori Farms, Scottsdale, Arizona HAROLD MCCLARTY HMC Farms, Kingsburg, California TOMMULHOLLAND Mulholland Citrus, Orange Cove, California ALEXANDERT. MULLER Pasquinelli Produce Co.,Yuma, Arizona DOMINIC J. MUZZI Muzzi Family Farms, LLC, Moss Landing, California MARK NICKERSON PrimeTime International, Coachella, California THOMAS M. NUNES The Nunes Company, Inc., Salinas, California STEPHEN F. PATRICIO Westside Produce, Firebaugh, California RON RATTO Ratto Bros. Inc., Modesto, California CRAIG A. READE Bonipak Produce, Inc., Santa Maria, California ERICT. REITER Reiter Affiliated Companies, Oxnard, California JOSEPH A. RODRIGUEZ The Growers Company, Inc., Somerton, Arizona WILL ROUSSEAU Rousseau Farming Company,Tolleson, Arizona VICTOR SMITH JV Smith Companies,Yuma, Arizona KELLY STRICKLAND Five Crowns, Inc., Brawley, California RYANTALLEY Talley Farms, Arroyo Grande, California BRUCE C.TAYLOR Taylor Farms California, Salinas, California STUARTWOOLF Woolf Farming & Processing, Fresno, California ROBYRACEBURU Wonderful Orchards, Shafter, California

Main Street Produce was founded by Paul’s father, Alton Allen, in 1976, after he first served as a tractor salesman. Alton grew up in Blythe and married his wife there, before her family intervened and facilitated a move to the Central Coast with the tractor salesman job. Alton sold tractors but eventually wanted to get in the driver’s seat. He rented five acres and found four others to sharecrop the land with him. The group built a cooler and called it Main Street Produce. Over the first couple of decades, Alton ran the operation growing his own crops on rented land and offering cooling service for other growers. Son Paul joined the operation and eventually took control when Alton died too soon in 2003. Alexandra said that it

Alexandra, Rick, and Roy

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MARCH | APRIL 2020

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