Doc’s Organics’ $500,000 loan approved

After a back and forth discussion the merit of the project, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors approved a $500,000 loan from the Agricultural Benefit Program for Doc’s Organics which is seeking to build a new packing house in the north end.

Doc’s Organics initially approached the county seeking a $1.5 million loan from the county to open an organic citrus packing shed in Westmorland due to the lack of facilities available locally with the capacity to pack organic fruits.

“Currently we have to truck our citrus fruit out of the Valley to get packed because our product is organic and cannot be packed in a normal packing house,” said Gina Dockstader of Doc’s Organics. “The facilities here don’t have that capacity.”

She also mentioned that although the facility will likely employ 20-25 employees, she said that sustaining the jobs for the initial year or two would be a challenge but said she intends to keep all workers through the year even if it means moving them to the orchard when there is not enough activity at the packing house.

According to Agricultural Commissioner Carlos Ortiz, the Agricultural Benefit Advisory Committee after meeting with the applicant recommended the board to move forward with a lower amount than requested due to the creation of a lower number of jobs than in previous applications.

District 4 Supervisor Ryan Kelley suggested increasing the loan to match the amount initially requested by the applicant.

District 2 Supervisor Luis Plancarte said he wasn’t comfortable on voting to increase the amount to $1.5 million since he was expecting only to consider a $500,000 loan and after Dockstader shared the company’s plans he said there wasn’t enough to justify the $1 million increase.

Kelley said that if they would’ve followed that criteria in the past, the $2.5 million loan for One World Beef wouldn’t have happened and noted that the $1.5 million request meets county guidelines to provide up to $15,000 per job per year when this type of proposals come to the board.

After considering all takes, the board settles on approving Doc’s Organics loan for $500,000 and will schedule the item again for next week’s meeting to give the applicant the opportunity to take additional information to the board for them to consider lending the additional million.