History

LaBrucherie Produce’s original roots to farming can be connected back to 1912 when Jean Pierre LaBrucherie started a dairy farm in the Calexico and later the El Centro area. Jean Pierre and his wife Anne had emigrated from Aquitaine, France in the late 1800s originally settling in Los Angeles before discovering the Imperial Valley. They would spend the rest of their life in the area and in addition to the dairy, started growing crops. Their son, Matt LaBrucherie, returned after college and worked with his father. Matt was a true entrepreneur, believing in the partnership model of doing business with great people and sharing success with employees. In the early 1950’s, he founded LaBrucherie Ranch and the company began a new focus on produce.

During the next sixty years, a vast range of different crops were grown including iceberg, romaine, green leaf, red leaf, and butter lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spring mix, rutabagas, asparagus, parsnips, peanuts, black-eyed peas, potatoes, red peppers, turnips, corn, onions, squash, watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews. Matt was extremely proud of every crop he grew and would share with anyone the valuable learning experiences he had each season.

Matt also shared his love of farming with his only son, Tim, who joined LaBrucherie Ranch in the 1970s. After Matt’s death in 2001, Tim proudly continued the produce growing traditions that he and his father built. In 2003, Tim’s only son, J.P., joined LaBrucherie Ranch and began learning the farming and business practices that Matt passed down to Tim when he was young.

After nearly 60 years of working as LaBrucherie Ranch, in 2011 a new company was formed, LaBrucherie Produce, LLC, through which Tim and J.P., as the managers, operate their core business of farming produce. The successful farming practices and unique business philosophy that Matt passed down are now carried on by LaBrucherie Produce: farming only excellent ground, rotating crops properly, walking fields each and every day, and making sure the success of the business is shared with the people who truly make it possible, the employees.

The strength of LaBrucherie Produce is augmented by Tim and J.P.’s education in accounting and law. Tim earned an accounting degree from the University of Southern California (USC) and a law degree from Stanford University. J.P. saw the value of his father’s education and also earned an accounting degree from USC, followed by a law degree from the University of Notre Dame. Both Tim and J.P. continue to maintain their C.P.A. and law licenses. Given the current global economic climate, regulatory pressures produce farmers face in California, and the myriad of food safety initiatives, having managers with farming, legal, and accounting backgrounds keep the company ahead of regulatory, financial and business challenges presented every day in this more and more complex business of farming. Nevertheless, when faced with a growing dilemma or any sort of business challenge, what is always taken into heavy consideration is what Matt would have done.

Today, LaBrucherie Produce custom grows a wide variety of produce crops in the El Centro and Holtville areas. Tim and J.P., along with a talented team of growers lead by Brent Peterson and supported by the best farm team in the valley, continue the strong tradition of properly rotating produce ground by also farming many field crops. The results of proper rotation are disease free, high yielding produce crops, one of the main reasons why produce companies choose LaBrucherie Produce to grow their crops.