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HOMESTEAD, FL
November 1, 2003
Brooks Tropicals had a rather humble beginning seventy-five years ago. During Thanksgiving week of 1928, the company, then known as J.R. Brooks Corporation, began operations in a tin shed in Homestead, FL. Its staff of two consisted of a packer and a grader/shipper who successfully launched the company by shipping nearly 100 boxes of fresh avocados to New York by rail at a time when fresh avocados were still considered a novelty in the east during the cold winter months. In 1935 when the company packed its first refrigerated truck with 19,000 pounds of ice, J.R. Brooks accompanied the cargo as co-driver. Brooks Tropicals is now owned by his son, company President Neal Palmer (Pal) Brooks, who took over from his father in 1967.
Today, Brooks Tropicals is the nation’s premiere tropical fruit and vegetable supplier. The enterprise has expanded and evolved over seventy-five years, currently stretches from Florida to Belize, and has well over one thousand employees. The firm’s main product lines are avocados, papayas, and carambolas (star fruit). In addition, it provides over thirty other commodities, ranging from plantains to yuca to sugar cane to calabaza. In addition to growing a substantial portion of the products it sells, the company also packs, ships, maintains and manages Florida groves, and markets products for Caribbean and South American growers. The firm is dedicated to expanding the American palate, and has consistently devoted substantial resources to educating American consumers about tropical fruit and vegetable products.
One characteristic that has distinguished Brooks Tropicals over the past seventy-five years has been an unwavering commitment to innovation in every aspect of its business – products, packaging, shipping methods, and quality-control techniques.
For example, the company developed the Brooks Lite avocado concept, which promotes the fact that Florida avocados have less fat and fewer calories than California avocados. The company created the Brooks Lite brand, indicating that its avocados have 50% less fat than the leading California avocado, and in an in-house laboratory that tests fruit using USDA-approved procedures. Also, the firm developed a second label, SlimCado, and added the Less Fat program for avocados that are confirmed to have 30% less fat than the leading California avocado.
The company was also the first to use hydrocooling on avocados, which made it possible to palletize this fruit, leading to significant savings in packing and shipping costs. Brooks Tropicals has also led the way in quality assurance – for example, by installing Florida’s first refrigerated packinghouse loading dock, which allows for a Continuous Cold ChainTM during storage and transport. The firm was also a pioneer in the use of hot water treatment to control Mediterranean fruit fly and anthracnose in mangoes.
Another innovation has been the addition of Caribbean Red papayas, which required the company to farm offshore for the first time. After a decade of growing and harvesting experience, Brooks now has the ability to grow top quality, large papayas year-round. These papayas are known for their extraordinary taste and enormous size. Most importantly, the firm ensures quality by pre-cooling the fruit on the day of harvest, and by maintaining a Continuous Cold Chain once the fruit is packed and shipped. These papayas will be available in promotional volumes through early December.
As if the day-to-day volatility of the produce industry were not enough, Brooks Tropicals has had to survive through a number of bona fide catastrophes. For example, in 1977, the year it snowed in Miami, the whole South Florida region experienced a freeze that destroyed avocado and lime crops, reducing production that year by a whopping 70%. In the 1980s, a fire destroyed one of the company’s two packinghouses. Worst of all, in August 1992, Hurricane Andrew swept through Homestead and visited devastation on Brooks Tropicals. During Andrew, all of the company’s physical assets sustained some type of damage, including roofs blown off buildings, equipment being ruined, vast water damage to facilities, and some buildings being completely destroyed.
Since Brooks Tropicals has had to withstand such adversity over the past seventy-five years, one may naturally wonder what makes the firm so special. One important factor has been a history of fiscal responsibility. In addition, the company has always believed strongly in using science and technology to deliver the highest quality product possible to the consumer. Finally, and most importantly, is the company’s resilience and willingness to embrace change.
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