In the late 1930’s, when the United States was beginning to recover from the Great Depression, a young Stanford graduate came to California’s Salinas Valley seeking employment. H.W. “Cy” Mann began his career trimming fruit and lettuce for 40¢ an hour. In 1939, he opened a fresh carrot packing operation and a business was born. From day one, Mr. Mann built a reputation for honesty and integrity—one that remains with us today.
In 2018, Mann Packing was acquired by Del Monte Fresh Produce. Today, operating as the Del Monte Fresh Produce vegetable division, Mann remains one of the country’s leading suppliers of fresh vegetables, including our proprietary Broccolini® product and award-winning Stringless Sugar Snap Peas.
Del Monte Fresh Produce proudly carries on the traditions put in place by Mr. Mann as well as the Nucci and Ramsey families since 1939. We recognize our most important asset is the long standing and trusted relationships we’ve developed with our exceptional growers.
As our team of innovative thinkers continues to deliver some of best vegetable products on the market, we also understand the need as a company to be a responsible global citizen. At Mann’s, sustainability continues to be top of mind throughout all of our operations. Our newest facility in Gonzales, California is equipped with a 260-foot tall wind turbine that will help offset our energy usage. At our Salinas, California facilities, wash water is reclaimed into industrial waste systems for use on golf courses and city landscaping. We are also diligent in tracking our waste streams and continue to find solutions towards reducing our waste.
Spanning three generations now, the Costa family has been farming in the Salinas Valley. Anthony Costa moved from Wakefield, MA to Los Banos, CA in 1939 when he was 11 years old. In 1956, Anthony started Costa Farms growing sugar beets. In the late 1950’s, Mr. Costa expanded the business and began farming leaf lettuce, as well as green onions.
Their children, Mike Costa, David Costa and Joanne Moline, as well as grandchildren Colby Pereira and Peter Dossche proudly carry on the family farming tradition today.
Vessey and Company, another long-time partner of Mann’s, is a fourth-generation produce grower and shipper, located in the Imperial Valley of California.
Growing and transporting high-quality produce to markets all over the country requires coordination, ingenuity, science, and labor just to name a few. At Mann’s, we track the entire planting, harvesting, packing, and shipping process for over 40 fresh vegetable products.
Once you’ve picked up your veggies at the store, how should you store them to keep the freshness our farmers and employees have worked so hard to attain? We recommend keeping the veggies in your refrigerator in the bag they came in. After you open a bag of veggies, keep any you don’t use in the bag and eat them within a couple days for optimum freshness.
The fresh veggies’ appearance on your dinner table is the culmination of a lot of hard work and a careful balancing act between both natural and technological environments. It’s a long journey from farm to table and we constantly focus on innovation to keep the veggies you eat, fresh – bon appétit!
Food safety has always been, and will always be our highest priority. The health and safety of the consumers who eat our products is of paramount importance to us. We work hard to implement industry best practices for food safety at every level of production, from the planting phase through harvest, processing, and distribution.
Because of our rigorous food safety procedures, we’re able to provide our consumers with the highest quality products that are assured to be delicious, nutritious, and most importantly, safe.
