A dream that first took root in a Southern California middle school is blossoming on the Oregon State campus and in the bountiful soil in the Mexican state of Jalisco. OSU senior football student-athlete Ricky Ortiz and lifelong friend Adrian Contreras had more on their minds than video games and sports as classmates at El Cerrito Middle School, a stone’s throw from I-15 in the Inland Empire community of Corona, Calif. They had a dream about buying some land and forming a partnership to sell avocados. Ortiz loved how they tasted, and both envisioned a day when avocados would be recognized as a high-demand “super fruit” as more consumers developed healthier eating habits. “Adrian and I had business mindsets, ideas that not very many kids in middle school have,” Ortiz, a 22-year-old agricultural sciences major, recalled in a recent interview at Strand Hall. “And we loved avocados.” Their brainstorming ultimately led to them forming a business partnership. They now own about 200,000 trees on 150 acres in Jalisco, adjacent to land already owned by Adrian’s father. Adrian is running the farm; Ortiz will play one final season of college football and complete his schoolwork before going to work. “Adrian and his dad will do the farming,” Ortiz said. “I will be marketing the product, promoting our business internationally,” to existing markets in the Western Hemisphere and to emerging ones in China, India, New Zealand and Europe. Avocados have become increasingly popular as consumers recognize their many benefits. Sales in the United States increased by more than 20 percent in 2015, according to the Hass Avocado Board, a trade group located in Irvine, Calif.
