A.V. THOMAS PRODUCE Sweet Potatoes Facilities About Us Recipes Contact Us A.V. Thomas Produce is the largest grower, packer, shipper of organic sweet potatoes in the U.S. Over 80% of California’s sweet potato and yam production happens in Merced County. What’s the difference between a sweet  potato and a yam? Depending on who you ask… Although orange-fleshed sweet potatoes have traditionally been referred to as yams in parts of the United States and Canada, they are not part of the same family as True Yams and therefore they are not really yams. True yams are cultivated in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania and not traditionally in the United Stated or Canada. In the United States, it’s easier. “Sweet potato” is the broad category name, and yams are a type of sweet potato. (So all yams can also be called sweet potatoes, but not all sweet potatoes can be called yams.) Recipes & Cooking Tips Breads & Baking Main Dishes Salads & More Side Dishes Farming/Organic The company was founded by Antonio Vieira Tomas, who immigrated to the United States from the Azores Island of Pico in Portugal in 1920 and settled in Livingston, California. 3900 Sultana Drive, Atwater, CA 95301-9605 avthomasproduce.com (209) 394-7514

A.V. THOMAS PRODUCE Sweet Potatoes Facilities About Us Recipes Contact Us I want to thank God for the life I’ve led and for the health and happiness my family has been blessed with. Manuel Eduardo Vieira – Owner and President In the spring of 1977 my uncle, Antonio Vieira Tomas, offered to sell me his company. Looking at the original documents my wife and I signed when we purchased one 9,100-square-foot building (but not the land it sat on). Eighty acres of sweet potatoes already planted and awaiting harvest later that year, some cardboard boxes and a little bit of equipment all for less than 150k. The year before, my uncle documented that A.V. Thomas Produce sold almost 39,000 forty-pound cartons of sweet potatoes and yams – about 1.5 million pounds of produce. Thirty years later, A.V. Thomas Produce, Inc. grows over 3,000 acres of certified organic sweet potatoes and yams, and sells more than 300 million pounds of sweet potatoes and yams, organic and conventional. This growth and success was only possible because of the opportunity afforded me by my uncle and the support and love of my wife Laurinda. Not to mention, our daughter Marcia and the hard work and proper supervisions made by my sons, Ricardo and Carlos. These accomplishments are also due to the talent and hard work of the supervisors, managers, employees, our top quality growers, and the loyalty of our suppliers and customers. 3900 Sultana Drive, Atwater, CA 95301-9605 avthomasproduce.com (209) 394-7514