Organic Stone Fruit Hitting Its Stride

As California closes out May, its crops of organic stone fruits are coming into full stride with June expected to be full of promotional opportunities.

Stephen Paul, stone fruit and blueberry category director for Homegrown Organic Farms, Porterville, CA, told OPN on Tuesday, May 26, that the weather patterns in winter and spring – including very dry conditions from November well in to January – created some challenges for the trees that has resulted in smaller fruit to start the season.  But a warm spring, along with sufficient chilling hours, has resulted in a good crop that is on the verge of breaking out.

Stephen Paul, stone fruit and blueberry category director, Homegrown Organic Farms

“I see a spike coming,” Paul said. “We should have plenty of fruit for Father’s Day and Fourth of July promotions.”

He went down his list and said there should be promotional opportunities on many different varieties and colors of organic stone fruit.  “We’ll have white and yellow nectarines, white and yellow peaches, red and black plums and plenty of other fruit as well.”

Besides those items, Homegrown has had apricots for several weeks and pluots are another variety that it offers and will be in greater supply as the season wears on. In fact, Homegrown’s crop of pluots typically last later in the season with shipments into late September.  Its plum, nectarine and peach varieties tend to run their course as August fades from sight.

Paul said the f.o.b. market price in late May was in the mid-$30’s. However, he was anticipating a drop in price, though the supply-demand equation will dictate that.  “I haven’t seen any prices in the $20’s yet,” he said indicating that they might eventually get there.

He noted that June and July will feature Homegrown’s “8^th Annual Peach Party”, noting that supplies should allow for some great organic promotions.  “Peaches will be the headliner but we will be inviting lots of other fruits to join the party, including nectarines, plums and pluots.

Mason Parkinson, Valliwide Marketing Inc

Mason Parkinson of Valliwide Marketing Inc., Reedley, CA, had a very similar report. He characterized May as being just “okay” for organic stone fruit growers as the trees yielded mostly small fruit causing total early returns to be lower than last year.  “We saw some prices in the $40’s at the start of the season for apricots, but mostly we have been in the mid to high $30’s on nectarines and peaches.”

Parkinson was anticipating better sizing by mid-June with promotional opportunities surfacing on many different items led by yellow peaches. He anticipated that in June, the price/size curve will drop a slot with the smaller sizes possibly getting into the high $20’s, but most fruit will be in the low to mid $30’s range.  “For at least the next three to four weeks, we are going to be heavy with yellow peaches,” he said, adding that there will also be some good opportunities for black plums as June matures.

While yellow nectarines were in a bit of a slowdown in late May, the Valliwide executive said the shipper will once again have good supplies of that commodity by the second week of June.

Valliwide will have organic stone fruit into late September with peaches and plums lasting the longest.  “We will have yellow nectarines until late August,” he said.