El Cajon's economy today runs on retail traffic and health-care visits around one of San Diego County's largest shopping malls, not the packaging automation demand its old farm valley once generated. That's a real shift from the city's first half-century: incorporated in 1912, El Cajon spent decades known for grape, avocado and citrus agriculture across the El Cajon Valley, farming that traced back to Spanish-mission-era cattle ranching on the original Rancho El Cajon land grant before the valley turned to fruit growing under American ownership. Little of it remains today. That agricultural identity has largely given way to dense residential development and limited industrial land use, and no major food or CPG manufacturer currently operates in the city itself.

Grape, avocado and citrus growers who still work valleys like this one need their harvest bagged and cased before it turns, and that timing pressure is what our equipment is built to handle. We don't need a plant inside El Cajon's city limits to be useful to the producers around it. Our Mars Series VFFS machines handle vertical form fill seal packaging for the fruit, nut and produce output that valleys across California grow, and our automatic case packers keep finished product moving once it's bagged or boxed. Manufacturers and co-packers near El Cajon can find the equipment details on our food and beverage industry page and our California locations page. El Cajon's valley may not farm at the scale it once did, but we still supply and support equipment for producers across the state, covered on our solutions page.