The California stone fruit crop is about ready to harvest, and the season is looking good, according to Chad Allred at Kingsburg Orchards. The harvest will start in the Kettleman region. “In Kettleman we enjoy a micro-climate, which is on average 6-8 degrees warmer than the rest of the Central Valley in California. This means we’re always the first to start harvesting in California. Typically about 10 days ahead of the rest of the growers,” he explains.
Great expectations for this year’s crop
The season is set to start right on time with the first products set to be picked between April 20th – 22nd in the Kettleman region. Allred says: “We initially thought that the season would be starting a bit earlier than usual, but then we had some colder weather and some rain in March, and this slowed the season down a bit. That isn’t a bad thing though, we like for the fruit to go through its full growth cycle rather than being sped up, because that is what helps develop that high quality, good eating fruit.”
The weather this season has been good, Allred says. “We had a very good number of chill-hours, and enough rain. There’s never a winter in California where we don’t wish we had more rain, but it was sufficient this year. During the bloom season we had wonderful weather with the temperature falling in the 70 degrees Fahrenheit range, which is great for February.”
The company will start picking this week with their yellow and white peaches, and their yellow nectarines. Their apricots will also start this week, around April 25th and will run through the end of July. The white nectarines are set to start by May 1st, with plums and plumcots starting in the last week of May.
Educating consumers and expanding demand
The demand for stone fruit in the US market has been consistent, Allred shares. “Stone fruit might have lost a little bit of market share over the past five seasons, but we still see good demand. Our season has expanded, too. We are now starting earlier than ever and are also ending later than ever with our exclusive variety plums that can go all the way through December. Now that people can enjoy the fresh product for much longer, the demand is coming back.”
“We are looking at the upcoming season as a wonderful opportunity for the stone fruit industry to help introduce the product to the younger generation that might not have been eating it very much before. There’s an uptick in sales across all commodities and people are looking at fresh produce differently now. Our goal as shippers is to educate the consumer even more this year and we believe we have the opportunity to really capture our audience with this message, especially now. We’re really excited about the season and it’ll be fantastic to re-introduce the consumers to the California stone fruit,” he adds.
A significant amount of California stone fruit also is exported throughout the world. The main destinations are Canada, Mexico and the Far East. “Some is also exported some to Japan, Australia, the Middle East, and UAE. We are always looking to add more destinations to give more people access to this great-tasting stone fruit. There’s some countries with phytosanitary barriers, but we are working on getting access to these areas,” Allred says.
Special plum program
The plums and plumcots will be the last stone fruit variety to start and are forecast to be ready to harvest around May 25th. “This works out perfectly with the Chilean crop. The California plums usually start around one to two weeks after the last product from Chile is sold, so that gives the retailers the time to switch over,” Allred says.
He adds: “The plum and plumcot crop this year looks to be medium volumes this year. “It’s not a particularly heavy or light crop this year. In comparison to a normal year, we expect it to be lighter volumes from start to finish, though the quality and the sizing is very good. We anticipate pricing to stay pretty firm all season."
Kingsburg Orchards also has a special holiday program for their plums as well. “The entire US stone fruit industry finishes up around the end of September, but we have a special program that starts in early October and runs all the way up to Christmas. We have nine very special and exclusive varieties that eat amazing! We will have significant volumes of these varieties. They’re all red in exterior with yellow or gold meat and have great brix, with the lowest brix being 17 and the highest being 24. They’ll be picked right up until the first or second week of December, so retailers will be able to supply fresh domestic stone fruit through the holidays with this program,” Allred concludes.
For more information:
Chad Allred
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Kingsburg Orchards
Ph: +1 (559) 897-2986
[email protected]
www.kingsburgorchards.com