Agriliance LLC announced on Feb. 26 that it had expanded its national service center distribution network with the opening of a Fresno, Calif., location, from which the company will distribute crop nutrients, crop protection products and seed to retail and wholesale customers in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys.
“We’re excited to expand into the California and western specialty markets,” said Ron Maitoza, regional director, Western Operations. “This new geography represents significant growth potential for Agriliance, and we look forward to positioning our products and services with area producers and dealers.”
Maitoza said fruit and vegetable crops in California will find particular benefits with numerous Agriliance products and services, including its proprietary AgriSolutions?äó products, more than 200 adjuvants, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, Agriliance’s Origin® brand of secondary and micronutrients, and the Croplan Genetics® seed brand, which is a registered trademark of Land O’Lakes Inc. “We understand the agronomic and service needs of fruit and vegetable growers, and are committed to meeting their expectations,” Maitoza said.
The Fresno Agriliance Service Center employs three people with advanced specialty ag production expertise, and is managed by Ernest Ornelas. The facility is already open and doing business, according to Agriliance spokesperson Annette Degnan, but an official grand opening is scheduled for April 24. The facility can be reached at 559-477-4141.
Agriliance, based in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., operates a total of 59 service centers in 29 states. The company markets crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed and related technical services through local cooperatives, company-owned retail locations and independent dealers in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Agriliance has actively pursued business expansion in California for the past several years. These efforts included a failed attempt to purchase Britz Fertilizer, a family-owned formulator, distributor and retailer of fertilizer products with 12 locations in central California. Negotiations between Agriliance and Britz began in 2005 (GM May 9, 2005), but were suspended early last year (GM Jan. 23, 2006).
Agriliance has been in an expansion mode in other parts of the country as well. On Feb. 1, the company announced an expansion of its wholesale crop nutrients distribution business in the Northeast through a storage and distribution agreement with Land O’Lakes Purina Feed LLC (GM Feb. 5, p. 1). Agriliance plans to move approximately 60,000 tons of crop nutrients annually through a dry fertilizer transload, blending and distribution facility in Caledonia, N.Y., which is owned by Commodity Resource Corp. (CRC) and leased by Land O’Lakes Purina Feed.
Agriliance also joined forces in December with two Idaho co-ops-Valley Wide Cooperative of Idaho Falls and Valley Cooperative of Jerome-to form Valley Agronomics LLC (GM Jan. 8, p. 1). Agriliance holds a 51 percent ownership in that LLC, with all buying for the new business’s agronomy division taking place out of Agriliance’s branch at Pocatello, Idaho.