Mission Produce

Modernizing Mission Produce

With nearly a 40-year history, Mission Produce is among the few in agriculture to have grown from a small, private company to a global, public entity. The company operates in 25 countries, its network includes 12 forward distribution centers (FDC) across North America, China, and Europe, and its sales volume in fiscal 2022 totaled more than 580 million pounds of avocados.

As a global leader in the worldwide avocado business, Mission Produce is a complex enterprise with multifaceted business operations; therefore, it requires a highly sophisticated information technology (IT) infrastructure to support the complexities of supplying the globe with fresh, ripe hass avocados and mangos.

In response to the company’s rapid growth, and on the heels of its initial public offering in October of 2019, a need arose to modernize our global IT networks and applications. The goal was to increase agility, improve enterprise security, and promote the developing scale of our operations. After evaluating options against cost and project timelines, we chose to become a 100% cloud-based enterprise. Leveraging cloud-based networks, security platforms, and applications would provide the most efficient system for implementation and expansion.

As one of the only in our industry to currently implement a fully cloud-based approach, we now uniquely benefit from several advantages, including enhanced information accessibility, increased ability to grow, heightened security, and more, all of which strengthen our position as a leading provider of the world’s finest avocados and mangos.

Information Accessibility

Using cloud-based platforms enhances the utilization of information across our entire supply chain. Our teams use a sophisticated inventory management platform to input, update, and analyze data across departments, including sourcing, inventory, sales, transportation, logistics, and more. Our dynamic, cross-functioning workstreams coordinate orders according to fruit type, country of origin, varying sizes and grades, specific levels of ripeness, and the route from source to FDC to the customer. In this business, many parts move simultaneously, and information is constantly evolving. Cloud databases make this information more easily stored, shared, and accessed, enabling us to perform with enhanced agility and accuracy.

  The architecture of cloud infrastructure offers increased security controls, layered defenses, continuous monitoring, increased threat identification, centralized administration, and regular advancements. These advanced controls strengthen our enterprise risk management and business continuity, assisting in mitigating risk, preparing for disruptions and reacting promptly. 

Scalability

Migrating to the cloud also brings an increased ability to scale. The cloud-based network we designed is currently being implemented in over 32 locations worldwide. Utilizing a globally standardized approach enables us to readily apply our existing framework to new facilities and accelerate the integration of new systems into our infrastructure.

Most recently, our cloud-based network streamlined the build-out of our IT infrastructure in our newest mega center in Laredo, Texas, saving time and costs. We're constantly improving upon this strategy, which is currently supporting the development of our newest FDC in Dartford, England, which is anticipated to open in the Spring of 2023.

Enhanced Security

As a growing public company, our approach to cybersecurity remains progressive. Compliance with privacy protection regimes and ensuring data security are increasing priorities. The architecture of cloud infrastructure offers increased security controls, layered defenses, continuous monitoring, increased threat identification, centralized administration, and regular advancements. These advanced controls strengthen our enterprise risk management and business continuity, assisting in mitigating risk, preparing for disruptions and reacting promptly.

Innovation is a core value at Mission Produce. Executing widescale infrastructure and business application advancements brings inevitable challenges. However, the long-term benefits outweigh the initial difficulties. As our business expands, so do our operational complexities and the need for a fully modernized, reliable IT infrastructure. We are one of the first in the produce industry to transform in this way and we are committed to adopting new technologies. Migrating to the cloud positions us to continue leading our industry forward.