Staff Bios – Sunterra Produce

In 2000, Steve Brazeel founded SunTerra Produce, which has grown from a one-person produce brokerage firm into an industry-leading, full-service platform handling sales, marketing, farming, food safety, harvesting, storage, and distribution activities for specialty crop producers on over 5,000 acres throughout the US and Mexico. Prior to founding SunTerra, Mr. Brazeel held various sales and management positions for produce industry giants Sun World International and the DiMare Co. Experiences learned at these companies, as well as business-to-business technology pioneer buyproduce.com, led Mr. Brazeel to start SunTerra Produce. Additonally, Mr. Brazeel founded and continues to hold leadership positions at several companies including: Prime Cooling – A refrigerated produce distribution center in Southern California; SunTerra Distribution – A “final mile” fresh fruit and vegetable wholesale distributor located in the heart of downtown Dallas, TX; and SunTerra Logistics – A non-asset based transportation brokerage platform focusing on refrigerated freight in North America. Mr. Brazeel was Co-Founder and Managing Member of Golden West Veg, LLC, a company he successfully exited in 2018.

Born out of SunTerra‘s participation in the USDA’s ground-breaking Farmers to Families Food Box program, Project FoodBox was launched in 2020. Since the program’s inception, the SunTerra/Project FoodBox teams have delivered over 55 Million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to families in need through its network of food banks and other non-profits.

Mr. Brazeel previously served as member of the board of directors of the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA), whose goal is to create policies and procedures to assure safe leafy greens and confidence in fresh fruit and vegetable food safety programs. Mr. Brazeel is an active member of the California Coast Chapter of Young President’s Organization (YPO).

After 2 years of study at Cal Poly-Pomona, Mr. Brazeel earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from the University of Arizona in 1992. Born and raised in the small farming community of Brawley California, Steve & Casey Brazeel reside on Balboa Island, CA and have 4 children: Cassidy, Claire, Connor, and Charlie.”

Fun Facts

Favorite movie: The Godfather II
Favorite cereal: Cap’n Crunch…or Grape Nuts
Favorite SunTerra product: Watermelons & Sweet Corn
Favorite music band/artist: Van Morrison / The Eagles
Describe your perfect day: Watching a live football game with family and friends
Favorite sports team: Cal Berkeley Football, Los Angeles Chargers, and Arizona Football
Favorite hobby: Any time spent with family and friends
First car: ’56 Chevy