BONITA — NatureSweet announced it will hold a job fair in Graham County in July as the tomato grower transitions its greenhouses in Bonita to a research and development facility.
Date and location of the job fair was not yet announced.
Rodolfo Spielmann, CEO and President of NatureSweet, met with employees this week to discuss employment options within the company, including readiness of the greenhouses for the R&D operation, expected to start by the end of July, and reallocation throughout the company.
Employees who opt not to take either of those two options will receive six weeks’ severance, plus an additional week of pay for every year worked with the company, including time worked for NatureSweet predecessor EuroFresh.
Principals of Bayacan, the company seeking to purchase Site 6 at the Bonita greenhouses for a medical-grade cannabis grow, were also on hand to talk about job opportunities there and at the Pharm, a cannabis grow in nearby northern Cochise County that has 75 job openings at present.
Spielmann explained that plans are contingent on approval of a zoning variance by the county for Site 6, as well as licensing for Bayacan from the state.
Last month, the Graham County Board of Supervisors approved a re-zoning of Sites 5 and 6 to unlimited manufacturing land use (M-X) zone, which will allow Bayacan to grow cannabis, should the other approvals come through.
Bayacan has agreed to purchase Site 6 — and has an option to purchase Site 5 — for $23 million and expects to spend another $2.5 million the first year on equipment.
The company expects to create about 272 construction jobs during the retrofitting of the Site 6 greenhouses and, at full development in about six years, employ more than 600 within the cannabis-growing operation, with a total salary of $39 million. Those numbers double if Site 5 is purchased.
