Even before I met Bob Mast, I knew he was a force. So, when I sat down to have a conversation with him, I was prepared for an influx of industry knowledge that would tell the story of CMI Orchards. Bob did not disappoint. In fact, I was blown away by the President’s big-picture insights that spoke to not just who CMI is as an organization, but the direction in which fresh produce is heading and the trajectory that got us to where we are today.
While CMI’s growth serves as a guidepost for this story, what was revealed to me by Bob is much larger than any one business—it is a compilation of category benchmarks executed by the industry as a whole. Apples, cherries, and pears are the lifeblood of CMI Orchards, and at the same time, the company often reflects on the forces outside its organization as a means to foster continuous improvement.
A retail vet turned supply-side expert who sits on many industry Boards, I cannot think of a more adept individual to tell this story than Bob.
Chandler James: Let’s start at the beginning. When the company rebranded from Columbia Marketing International to CMI Orchards in 2016, what were some of your goals and what kind of growth ensued?
Bob Mast, President, CMI Orchards: For us, the rebrand was a long-term strategic move to connect and convey the CMI image in a more meaningful way—grounding us in the local orchards we operate. The iconic eagle with its great wingspan, holding the green leaf, conveys the trajectory of strength, growth, and sustainable farming that CMI is on while simultaneously giving us a fresh look.
Following the rebrand, we entered a period of massive growth. In 2019, we partnered with Pine Canyon Growers, adding a significant volume of core apples to our manifest. During 2020, we brought on Yakima Fruit—adding more core apples, along with Independent Warehouse, a premier pear grower here in Central Washington.
In 2020 alone, we increased our volume by nearly 4 million cartons, and we’re on track to add an additional 2 million cartons this year. The long-term outlook has us expanding well beyond this impending success as well. We are managing our growth closely to both support our retail partners and enhance our existing growers.
BM: In evaluating potential new partnerships, we are very selective; operational directives prioritize meeting our customers’ needs, increasing and extending year-round supply, improving our ability to successfully market existing fruit, and, most importantly, ensuring that we’re bringing the very best genetics to market.
Our partnerships provide tremendous opportunities to increase daily shipping capacities with the expansion of packing facilities, cross-docking capabilities, and high-density acreage. This added volume enables significant growth for CMI and our partners, providing a robust portfolio for the future.
CMI is on an aggressive growth trajectory and is exceptionally well-positioned to handle our increasingly challenging customers’ needs—with more announcements coming soon.
BM: In practice, our dedication to doing the right thing means developing cross-functional leadership teams that train workers in soft skills, fostering a culture of safer and more secure work environments, building better lines of positive communication, and problem-solving across departments. We want our workforce to be active participants in the decision-making process, and we are committed to systems rooted in continuous improvement for both compliance and performance. We aim to exceed the industry’s most rigorous standards in the areas of labor practices, food safety, and integrated pest management.
EFI practices have been a key focus of our growers for many years. Moving toward certification was an opportunity for McDougall and Sons to validate the many existing efforts we were already practicing. It was also an opportunity to explore new ways of improving operations—keeping the best interests of the farmworkers central to our daily operations.
CMI is in the process of bringing the remaining 50 percent on board. We are confident that facing this challenge head-on will lead to the outstanding continuous improvement of CMI collectively, encourage us to innovative new best practices, and spur the common good for our industry.
BM: Shoppers expect high quality and continue to seek out premium items and new flavor profiles. By soliciting consumer feedback and studying sales analytics and buying habits, we feel it is vital to give shoppers exactly what they want: branded organics. This trend is a win-win, as retailers are rewarded by consumer sales and loyalty, shoppers are delighted, and the industry is elevated by innovation. That said, a four-tiered sales approach of conventional core, conventional branded, organic core, and organic branded is central to CMI’s brand—allowing us to meet retailer and consumer needs across the buying spectrum.
Similar to our tiered offerings, CMI leverages significant in-house branded programs—American Dream®, Flavogram®, and Flavors of the World®—which serve to capture multiple varieties or brands and give retailers more promotional merchandising opportunities. Our portfolio of branded apples includes Jazz™, Envy™, Smitten™, Ambrosia Gold®, KIKU®, Kanzi®, EverCrisp®, Cosmic Crisp®, and the newly added Sunrise Magic®. We follow these apple programs up with branded summer offerings with our Skylar Rae® and Strawberry cherries.
Sublicensing agreements on KIKU and Kanzi brands with our valued partners Applewood Orchards and Rice Fruit Company allow us to extend the availability of these programs for year-round coverage while bringing great products in proximity to Midwest and Eastern regional markets for locally grown programs. We also have our Horizon program, which functions as a trial program for evaluating new varieties, and we are a proud partner of the International PomeFruit Alliance (IPA). The IPA program is a group of six of the finest growing entities from various apple producing countries coming together to grow and distribute new and exciting varieties around the world.
BM: We have accelerated our emphasis and investment within our company’s logistics and transportation support divisions, which is an area of utmost importance to our retail partners. Similarly, the produce landscape continues to rapidly migrate from the physical to the digital space. This move was further accelerated with the onset of the pandemic. In response, we have quickly become experts in omnichannel marketing.
CMI also offers digital support with social media carousel ads that click through to retailers’ digital storefronts and produce departments, in addition to boosting geo-targeted ads in close proximity to stores. We are committed to doing everything we can to support our retail partners and make the process of increasing sales of our products as easy as possible.
This added volume enables significant growth for CMI [Orchards] and our partners, providing a robust portfolio for the future.
Bob Mast, President, CMI Orchards
In this way, CMI is also positioned to be a sounding board, a guide, or a go-to source when our retail partners are needing more information. While some retailers have in-house, pay-to-play digital platforms, CMI functions as a third-party source allowing us to be nimble and responsive, leveraging our resources and expertise on the fly to flex for our retailers’ needs.
In terms of sustainability, we’re taking the same approach as we’ve done with omnichannel marketing, and that is to become experts in this area. There’s so much technical information, especially related to sustainable packaging, and we see it as our job to ground the conversation as much as possible with good data. We just launched a new brand called Relax®, which puts an easily digestible shield of relevant information on the front of each package—conveying in simple messaging the sustainability benefits of the packaging.
BM: Mike Robinson, Co-Owner of Double Diamond Fruit and part of the CMI ownership, was named the 2021 Grower of the Year by the Good Fruit Grower. Secondly, we are celebrating the McDougall family, who was just recently announced as the 2022 Apple Citizens of the Year by the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival.
CMI is also honored to have received the National Agri-Marketing Association’s Region One award, with our 2021 Flavogram® campaign that was developed by our very creative and innovative team in partnership with Curious Plot.
BM: We believe we are centered on the next big industry breakthrough—and the downline of that realization is the waypoints of sustainability, stewardship, and best practices brought to scale.
CMI is on a rapid, but strategically managed, growth trajectory. We strive to be a strategic partner for all of our customers and to continue to provide new and innovative ways to stay on top and stand out from the masses. CMI wants to be the easy button for our retail partners, delight consumers by offering the greatest possible eating experience through the best varieties globally, provide relevant and sustainable solutions to significantly reduce waste, give back to our communities and the people that drive our business, and remain forward-thinking in our approaches. We frequently say at CMI that we will always strive to outhustle, outperform, and outservice our competitors. No matter how big we grow or what the future holds, our growers, employees, and customers will remain the lifeblood of our operations.
While Bob is still playing it close to the vest in terms of upcoming announcements, a track record like CMI Orchards’ speaks for itself. It truly takes a unique perspective to make it in this industry, and this is one treefruit supplier taking destiny by the reins and steering its carriage toward future success. 
