Organic Pioneer CCH Citrus Continues Growth

Corona College Heights Citrus dates back more than a century, with the original CCH Orange and Lemon Association first beginning in September of 1899 with the meeting of the newly elected board of directors of the Queen Colony Fruit Exchange.

“It’s one of the oldest citrus cooperatives remaining in California,” said Garff Hathcock, director of field operations for the Riverside, CA-based company. “We had several mergers over the 120 years, and we are a non-profit owned by our grower base.”

CCH Facility

Today, that grower base consists of approximately 415 growers on around 15,000 acres.

It was back in 1986 that CCH’s 16-year marketing agreement with Sun World expired and the company began marketing its fruit directly. Today, its modern packing facilities pack approximately 5 million cartons of fruit a year.

“Our main function is to go to grower members, assess their crops and help them arrange their harvest deal or arrange it for them, bring the fruit into the packing facility, pack it, put it in a box and market it for them,” Hathcock said.

The company pack oranges, grapefruit and lemons year-round and is the only lemon packer south of Ventura to have lemons available all year. CCH does both conventional and organic citrus, entering the latter around 2002.

“When we started organics, we had way more product than we could possibly sell and the problem with sales back then was there was no continuity with supply,” Hathcock said. “You couldn’t get large retailers interested in organic citrus because you would have it, then wouldn’t have it. So, we had a lot of product but very little market for it.”

Garff Hathcock, director of field operations, CCH Citrus

That changed as the years went on. Whereas CCH was only able to sell 35 percent of what it had 15 years ago, today it sells 100 percent of what it has in the organic marketplace.

“The growth has probably been consistently between 10-15 percent a year since then and continues to grow steadily,” Hathcock said. “Organic citrus makes up about 20-22 percent of our total volume today, so it’s a significant amount. In terms of sales, it’s 25-26 percent.”

Although interest in organic citrus isn’t growing as fast as some other categories, Hathcock has been happy with the rise in demand.

“Everyone wants organic citrus on their shelves now,” he said. “Every major retailer in the United States has an organic section and that includes organic citrus. We contract with all the major retailers and we sell citrus from the West Coast to the East Coast.”

The biggest challenge with growing organic citrus is the cost structure, because the same tools as conventional growers aren’t available. Hathcock explained that you need to anticipate the problems and head it off at the path, compared to conventional farming, where it can be more reactionary.

Yield can also be a challenge and suffer on the organic side depending on nitrogen levels because it’s harder and more expensive to get nitrogen into the ground.

“I have some groves that rival some conventional groves in terms of yield, and I have some that are 25-30 percent less. It just depends on where it’s grown and what the item is,” Hathcock said.

As for future growth, Hathcock feels the whole organic segment offers plenty of opportunity.

“Every year, the whole category has grown, and citrus is just a part of it,” he said. “It’s a steady stream of growth. People are more concerned about what they’re eating and organic seems to be a big part of that.”

CCH is the only non-profit cooperative that sells organic citrus in the U.S., and that makes the company unique.

“On the citrus side, we are one of the largest organic shippers in the U.S., and offer every citrus item,” Hathcock said. “We have a steady supply all year long with good volumes.”