Delicious New Mexico Aggregation Center Opens November 2 to Help South Valley Farmers Process Crops

The Delicious New Mexico Aggregation Center will open November 2 behind the South Valley Economic Development Center in Albuquerque, giving local farmers equipment to clean, chop and package their crops. Yahoo reported the opening date. The project is six years in the making.

What the South Valley Center Will Do

Farmers can drop off their harvests for employees to clean, chop and package. They can then pick the produce back up to sell themselves, or the facility will buy it to market and distribute to places such as schools and senior centers.

"It's one of a kind," RGCDC Facility Operations Manager Luis Nunez said. "The state of New Mexico doesn't have one. This is one of few in the nation that has this type of equipment."

RGCDC Operations Director Sean Humphrey said the ability to slice, dice and chop can make farmers more competitive in the market going against big agriculture. Humphrey said most farmers want to do the farming and are not necessarily interested in aggregation or distribution, so the center will offer both.

According to Nunez, roughly 30% of farmers have the capability to wash their produce that comes from the field. Humphrey said the facility has salad spinners to make sure lettuce is to quality, slicers, dicers, and equipment to core cabbage for coleslaw and to make potatoes into hash browns or home fries.

Facility leaders said they already have a list of farmers ready to work with them, and the food banks of New Mexico have contacted them to get product into their facilities for distribution. Nunez said the effort is the organization's part in trying to help the farmer and the community, especially with the increase in food insecurities.

The center is a partnership between Delicious New Mexico, the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation and the South Valley Economic Development Center.

South Valley Economic Development Center's Record

According to akta.pro company records, the South Valley Economic Development Center is a nonprofit food business incubation center in Albuquerque's South Valley, operated by RGCDC, providing commercial kitchen access, bilingual training and mentorship to Hispanic and multicultural food entrepreneurs. It was founded in 2005 and has a headcount range of 1-10.

In 2026, the center scheduled a pilot cohort launch of the Semilla Program, a six-month cohort-based food entrepreneur incubation program, in the third quarter with a maximum of 12 participants per cohort. In 2021, it launched the Mariposa Program to support established food businesses with scaling, commercial kitchen access and consulting to reach profitability or co-packaging readiness. In 2005, it established a public-private partnership with Bernalillo County for foundational operational support, with RGCDC as parent nonprofit operator.

What Happens on November 2

The Delicious New Mexico Aggregation Center is set to open November 2, the date the report gives for the South Valley facility's launch.