New Mexico Fresh Foods Opens Southwest HPP Facility

Brad Avery

The phrase “food desert” gets used a lot, but when it comes to New Mexico it can be a tad more literal. On Thursday, New Mexico Fresh Foods (NMFF) will host a ribbon cutting ceremony to help change that, celebrating the opening of its new high pressure processing (HPP) tolling facility — the first in the state.

NMFF CEO Kelly Egolf began her career in the food and beverage industry with Verde Juice, a cold-pressed juice brand which operated primarily out of a micro juicery in Santa Fe. Egolf said the brand became a favorite with both locals and tourists, but the company was unable to scale due to an inability to find HPP providers in New Mexico. She resorted to commuting to Denver, Colorado (a roughly six hour drive each way) to use the nearest HPP facility.

The drive was worth the effort — once it began using HPP, Verde doubled its sales within three months and was picked up by Whole Foods and Natural Grocers. But the difficult experience prompted Egolf to found her own facility.

“We realized that the problem that we were having with Verde Juice, its short shelf life and the barriers for us to gain access to more markets, was the same barrier that other New Mexico food companies and food entrepreneurs across our region were facing because there was no HPP toller here in the Southwest,” Egolf said.

Verde has now been folded into NMFF and the 20,000 square foot facility includes HPP tolling, co-manufacturing, cold storage and product development. The facility can produce 40,000 bottles a day. In addition to juice, the company offers services for cold brew coffee, tea, green chili and other food products. According to Egolf, NMFF also produces hemp juice and formulates CBD beverages.

NMFF is funded through a group of social impact investors that became involved in an effort to build out the food and beverage industry in New Mexico. Although the state has a rich agriculture industry, with over 40 million acres of farmland as of 2017, Egolf said there has been little investment in food processing.

As well, while financing the operation was relatively easy, Egolf said it took two years to find a suitable location for NMFF to operate from, citing a 3% vacancy rate among warehouses in New Mexico. The vacancy issue has prompted larger companies to focus on new developments. In 2019, foodservice and beverage distributor Ben E. Keith Co. began construction on a new 275,000 square foot facility in Albuquerque and began operations earlier this year.

“We see bringing food processing technology to New Mexico, with a tolling facility that creates access for other companies, as a community project,” she said. “It’s something that helps us to change the local food economy.”

NMFF is currently working with several Southwestern brands, including Texas-based CBD juice brand CannFusion, Tractor Brewing Company and restaurant and salsa producer El Rancho de los Garcia. Egolf said the company is also working to produce apple juice in order to partner with New Mexico-based breweries developing hard cider products.

In addition to working with other brands, NMFF has also provided a platform for Verde Juice to finally scale its business. Though the cold-pressed juice category has declined in recent years, Egolf said the brand has grown by producing citrus juices for food service accounts and also offers CBD-infused retail products. She said the company is also in discussions with “a couple” of national distributors to expand the Verde brand in retail nationwide.