Dennis Cohen

Background and personal commitment

Objectives in North America

One of our first objectives is to grow a U.S.A. import company. We want to excel in importing Specialty Produce as well as Specialty citrus, deciduous fruit, grapes and pineapples by sea and air.

The primary focus of our company is high quality value added specialty fruit.

Our commitment to our customers is to continually search for new value added produce.

Background on me

• Residence: Visalia, California USA, located in the Central San Joaquin Valley which is a key agricultural center of California and the United States of America.
• Professional Qualifications:
  • Chartered Accountant CA (SA)
  • Certified Public Accountant CPA
• Status: Permanently resides in the USA for the past 27 years
• Work Experience:
  • Trained in an international accountancy firm. Qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
  • Worked in the USA as an Accountant for the first 5 years after departure from South Africa. Qualified as a Certified Public Accountant.
  • Migrated from the Accounting profession to the Banking Industry as a stepping stone to Agricultural Industry. Was a Vice President for Crocker Bank in the Regional Agricultural Centre specializing in problem agricultural loans for cash crops and permanent planting customers. Spent four years with Crocker Bank which was acquired by Wells Fargo.
  • During my time at Wells Fargo Bank, I was approached by a Bank customer called San Francisco Floral a retail florist, with multiple locations as well as a nursery. They requested I help turn around their financial position. In order to achieve our goals, I acquired a minority interest in the company. We turned around the financial health of the company in Five years. Thereafter, the founding family reacquired my shares in the company in 1989.
  • After the sale of San Francisco Floral I joined Royal Diamond Packing, a partnership between three farmers, (one of which was D’Arrigo Bros of California a very well established Agricultural conglomerate credited with bringing Broccoli to the USA from Italy at the turn of the century). My job was to assist the general partner in the management of the company. Royal Diamond was a grower, packer and marketer of stone fruit i.e. Plums, Nectarines and Peaches, as well as table grapes. They packed close to one million cartons of stone fruit and about 850 000 cartons of table grapes. The cold storage facilities were used for apples in the off season.
  • In my third year with the company, Mr. Andy D’Arrigo a major partner, requested I sell the company for the partners and liquidate all the assets and distribute the proceeds. I proceeded to perform the task to the satisfaction of all the shareholders. Once the task was completed I elected not to relocate.
  • Mr. Jess Telles III a third generation farmer, heard I was becoming available and approached me to join Tri Citrus, an independent packer marketer of Citrus primarily Oranges. My function was financial as well as operational. The company packed 1 500 000 cartons of oranges.
  • In the third year with the company I embarked on a venture with one of the largest privately owned grower packer and marketers of Citrus in the USA, to develop a counter seasonal import, export sales agent program between the Southern Hemisphere and the USA for citrus, stone fruit and grapes. They were already the largest importer of Chilean lemons. The Principals of the company gave me tremendous encouragement to start SA Direct Fruit LLC.
• Accomplishments
  • Was instrumental in revolutionizing the PLU (Price look up) sticker industry in the California, Citrus industry. See article in the Citrograph magazine January 1997.
  • Organized, a successful Citrus Industry Symposium with a business format called “Navels 2000”. This was the first time an independent person has put on a seminar of this nature without the assistance of Sunkist Marketing (the large Co-Operative) or the local quasi Government Association. See newspaper and magazine articles February 1997.
  • First to import baby pineapples from South Africa.
  • First to import fresh citrus from Cyprus.
  • Appointed North American representative for: publicly traded company as well as a large overseas co-operative in addition to representing family farming operations from South Africa.

References: available on request with pleasure!