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As a child, Ricardo “Ricky” Ortiz grew up in the family strawberry-growing business, where he learned perseverance and hard work from his father. In the late 2000s, Ricky began taking on a leadership role, and by 2019, he fully stepped into the helm, becoming the face of Ricky’s Farms in Castroville. He grows strawberries in contract with Naturipe. In 2024, Ricardo began exploring how to expand his business with more acreage, volume, and employees. He found that he could expand leased acreage, but that he would need an operating loan to do so.
Ricardo reached out to the USDA Farm Service Agency to discuss a low-interest loan, but found the process to be too slow. In October 2024, he reached out to California FarmLink to inquire about an operating loan to support his business growth. When a loan officer began to work with Ricky, together they identified challenges to his long-term business resilience. Foremost among them was a need for a double-entry bookkeeping system, without which he had limited ability to understand the business' financial performance. In addition, FarmLink found that his tax service was not helping Ricky to take advantage of ag-specific provisions in tax law. Ricky agreed to look into options, and he agreed to work with a new financial advisor who can offer more comprehensive business services.
FarmLink’s loan, which closed in December 2024, is structured to support Ricky’s near-term capital needs while he advances his business practices in order to access lower-cost capital from USDA to sustain his scaled-up operations.
“FarmLink is here to help us. It gives us a little bit more leeway to improve our work.”
– Ricardo Ortiz, Ricky’s Farms
