Following finishing up with imported pomegranates from Chile and Argentina, some growers are getting ready for the start of the domestic season.
At Trinity Fruit Sales in Fresno, CA, Levon Ganajian says Trinity is starting with its early varieties of pomegranates in the first week of September. “It’s our proprietary varieties--Emek and Aco. These are Israeli varieties proprietary to us,” says Ganajian. “In the past, retailers haven’t had access to these early varieties. We’re seeing a lot of demand for them and that’s why we’re getting these plantings coming into production in the next five years.”
Left to right: the Aco variety of pomegranates; the Emek variety
The Emek and Aco aren’t quite as big as the better known Wonderful variety of pomegranates--they’ll peak on size 30s notes Ganajian. However, volume is growing on them. “Overall the crop is similar to last year in that it’s an average-sized crop,” he says. “Our Wonderful variety will start the first week of October but the early varieties have much bigger numbers due to that acreage coming on.” The Wonderful variety peaks on size 22s which is the preferred premium size by consumers.
Organic options
Trinity Fruit’s organic program also starts in the fall--its organic Wonderful variety, which involves whole organic pomegranates as well as organic arils--also begins the first week in October.
In terms of growing regions, the pomegranates are grown in the San Joaquin Valley in California--from Bakersfield to Madera.
Early Wonderful pomegranates which should begin harvest the first week in October.
And while California has faced a challenging growing season with drought and subsequent water restrictions as well as heat waves, the nature of growing the fruit has a slight advantage. “The Eastern part of the valley is closer to the mountains so there’s more underground water and it’s easier to pump. Most pomegranates are grown on the West side where water is far more of a challenge,” says Ganajian. “But pomegranates don’t use a lot of water compared to other tree crops like almonds. That’s helping us. But generally we’re concerned about water. We had a drought eight to nine years ago and we worried then too. But this is far worse.”
Heat and coloring
The heat has also slowed down external coloring of the fruit.
But meeting this crop will be strong demand that continues to grow says Ganajian. “Every year demand gets better and better,” he says, noting Trinity has programs along with fresh pomegranates including a year-round aril program, a dried fruit program, a frozen aril program and next fall it will also start with a juice program. “I think it’s a combination of things--the health aspects of pomegranates but also the changing demographics have helped pomegranates.” He notes that while the fruit once held most of its appeal to ethnic populations who were familiar with it, that’s changing. “Less than half the population has had pomegranates so the demand potential is great. I don’t see demand tapering off at all,” he says.
Trinity Fruit also has fresh and frozen arils programs.
All of this means pricing will be up slightly on the fruit this season by approximately five percent. “I’d attribute that to the expenses around labor. In fact, all of our expenses have gone up,” Ganajian says.
For more information:
Levon Ganajian
Trinity Fruit
[email protected]
www.trinityfruit.com