Meet Carolina Simental-Vogliotti of Specialty Fruits in North Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolina Simental-Vogliotti.

Carolina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born and raised in Mexico. I studied accounting and I married my husband Alex who is Mexican-American twenty five years ago, together we founded several construction and then agricultural businesses in Mexico. Later on we decided to move to Phoenix almost fourteen years ago with our two children so they could also acquire and develop the American culture of their father’s side.

When we arrived to Scottsdale, my parents in Mexico opened a new facility (Citrocorp) in Sinaloa, Mexico where they started to dehydrate mangoes, we had orchards for decades but never industrialized the fresh fruit before.

From Scottsdale I started to help the family company to sell the products to the American market, we decided to open Specialty Fruits, a distributing company in Phoenix to facilitate our customers to do business with an American company. We started with a small operation with only a few workers nine years ago and now during the season we have more than 500 workers and we have introduced also dried pineapples, bananas and mango purees. Also we started a partnership with and Indian company to dried tropical fruits there too.

The summer is the harvest time of the mangoes in Mexico and during this time of the year we work from there to ensure a great production. We sell our products to America, Canada, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand and this have been a great experience to travel the world to offer our products and meet great people.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road has not always been easy, we work in the food industry and in the last few years the government has enforced laws and regulations concerning food safety which we embrace and this has served to challenge and motivate us to acquire new quality certifications in order to ensure great products for our customers.

We have specialized in organic production and we feel very excited about being a part of the tendency to improve the food industry to become healthier.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Specialty Fruits is distributor and partner of Citrocorp and Pure Mango; the respective companies that produce the dried fruits and purees in Mexico.

I am a founder of the company and I also manage sales, customer service and am a part of the administration. I also work the logistics with the forwarding and shipping companies to send our products all over the world.

We specialized in tropical fruits, mainly mangoes and pineapples.

I am profoundly proud in the benefits that we are giving to Escuinapa, the small community where the factories are located as we employ hundreds of workers during the main harvest season.

I am grateful for the American mentality that we also have, which has allowed us to set a very high standard in improving production and customer satisfaction every year.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Specialty Fruits is in Phoenix but is not for the general public. We are wholesalers and have a home based business as we do not handle the product in America. We send our products to a warehouse in Nogales, AZ and from there we send them mainly to California, New York and Canada by truck.

For that reason I can travel and work from any place and be in touch with our customers from all over.

Phoenix is my home since 2010 and I am extremely happy to live there, I love the great weather during spring, fall and winter. We have great friends that now I consider part of my new family.

Although probably we could operate our business from any part of the country, we have chosen Phoenix for its beauty, weather and great people. I love that I can manage an International business from the comfort of my home and sometime in my pj’s!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.specialtyfruits.com
• Email: sales@specialtyfruits.com

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