Increased Cherry Production Propels The Flavor Tree Fruit Company

The Flavor Tree Fruit Company, based in Fresno, CA, specializes in marketing pomegranates, plums, cherries, and California kiwifruit, with notable brands such as SunnyGem pomegranates and Verry Cherry Plums.

The produce marketing company was founded in 2009 by Maurice Cameron and the Warmerdam family as a way to market fruit from the Warmerdams' orchards as well as outside growers and packers.

SunnyGem pomegranates

“At the time, the Warmerdams had about 1,700 acres, and they had a lot of new ideas about the produce industry. And they were looking for a partnership where they could take their ideas into the marketplace and bridge the gap between domestic customers and what was going on in the field,” Cameron said. “Most of those ideas have come to fruition and have been successful.”

Maurice Cameron, Co-Founder, The Flavor Tree Fruit Company

The Warmerdams' ideas included specialty and organic items, with organic cherries among one of the family's most important crops.

Even though growing cherries organically was a difficult task, John Warmerdam dedicated his time to doing it, with an initial planting of 144 acres. Organic became part of his mindset.

When it first started out, Flavor Tree Fruit Company didn’t handle the organic segment because it was an area that Cameron hadn’t had any experience in before, but after seeing the results of the first year with another marketer handling organics, he knew he could do better than that.

Even though growing cherries organically was a difficult task, John Warmerdam dedicated his time to doing it, with an initial planting of 144 acres.

“So, in 2011, I started handling the organic crop,” Cameron explained. “[The Warmerdams] started with organic cherries, and they are the largest grower of organic cherries in the state of California. Over the last 6-7 years, we’ve had between 50-85 percent of the organic crop here.”

Sequoia cherry from The Flavor Tree Fruit Company

From its inception, The Flavor Tree Fruit Company was touting itself for its work with cherries—with a number of different cherry items going on—so having organic was an important part of that picture.

“There’s only so many things you can do with cherries, so to have such a wide breadth, organic was super important to us,” Cameron said. “We’ve had some very early organic cherries, followed up by organic Rainiers, proprietary cherries, and the latest increases we’re looking at [are] organic cherries in our late season.”

Maurice Cameron, Co-Founder, The Flavor Tree Fruit Company

The company's stone fruit category continues to grow as more acreage is planted each year. In fact, just last year, The Flavor Tree Fruit Company began growing cherry plums organically, and it was quickly a success.

“There’s only so many things you can do with cherries, so to have such a wide breadth, organic was super important to us.” -Maurice Cameron

“It’s a niche deal for us, but we’re very important in California in this sector as far as marketing product,” Cameron said. 

The company strives to create long-term partnerships with importers, exporters, high-end fruit purveyors, and retailers, and it’s currently doing business on five continents. 

Verry Cherry Plums

One of the largest challenges The Flavor Tree Fruit Company faces in working with organics is the flow of distribution.

“We go from zero to 100 really quickly,” Cameron said. “Paced distribution of our product is a challenge, and timing becomes a bit complex. In California, the timing can vary really quickly because the cherry crop is very influenced by different weather so to set up promotions and fill demand for retailers can be challenging.”

Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic was also extremely challenging as the company's cherry crop months were April and May, and the virus was still new to most people, and no one knew what to expect.

One of the largest challenges The Flavor Tree Fruit Company faces in working with organics is the flow of distribution.

The Flavor Tree Fruit Company looks forward to a better 2021 as vaccines become widely distributed, and it expects things to run much smoother in the fields.

Verry Cherry Plum display in Florida

“We are pretty excited about the amount of organic offerings we are going to have in our cherry plums,” Cameron said. “We started with a bang last year, and it went quite well. It took some time to get folks on board since it was a new item, but once we did, it was really strong.”

The company is also planning to have its late varietals of organic cherries in the mix, so it can prolong its offerings and have some fun competition with those in the Northern California production areas.

“We’ve been doing a lot of planting, developing new acreage, and we continue to grow,” Cameron said. “That acreage is finally coming into production, so we’re expecting a lot more volume on cherries—organic and everything we do. We’re excited about the volume and new varieties ahead.”