“I am totally optimistic about this season’s New Jersey peach and nectarine programs,” Jeff Danner, general manager of Eastern Propak LLC in Glassboro, NJ, told The Produce News on June 20. “I now work with three New Jersey peach and nectarine growers — Summit City Farms in Glassboro, which is our largest supplier; Heilig Orchards in Richwood; and Gala Orchards in Elmer. I met with all of them in the past week, and they are all reporting a very full crop.”

Danner explained that following a prolonged cold winter as in 2013-14 can have an adverse effect on a peach crop. When temperatures drop extremely low bud damage can result that affects yield and bloom. When trees go into bloom, you assume that every blossom will be pollinated. That typically means that the trees need to be thinned so that the resulting yield will be nice, large-size fruit. Extreme cold can reduce the number of buds for pollination, and that means that less thinning is required.

“Some areas of Jersey are reporting more significant issues, but our growers were thankfully spared,” he said. “We’re now well past bloom, and we’ll be picking in a couple of weeks if not sooner.

“There was also a significant spring hailstorm in the state that did some damage to some groves, but again, our growers were not affected. We’ve been very fortunate this year.”

But like others in New Jersey, Eastern Propak’s spring peach season will be running between 10 and 12 days later than normal because of the late bloom. The state has been getting normal rains, which is reducing the amount of spraying that growers have to do to minimize the risk of brown rot.

Danner said that Summit City Farms was scheduled to start harvesting the early PF1 by around July 4. It is the first early variety to be harvested.

“Heilig Orchards is scheduled to start the PF5 variety within just a few days of the PF1 starting,” he added. “The Century variety is the first really good-volume peach variety. It will start — depending on the weather — between July 10 and 15. The John Boy will begin a week to 10 days later.”

Danner noted that a slew of varieties then start coming on strong, making for a good promotional period. Eastern Propak will be packing strong for all of the major retailers through Labor Day. He also said that the late start translates into a late end, and that means that there will be plenty of outstanding-quality peaches available into the middle of September. He is bullish on strong promotion during the start of school, encouraging parents to pack peaches in their children’s lunch boxes well into September.

Although there are over 100 peach varieties, it’s relatively rare that a new one shows the promise that the new Gloria variety is demonstrating.

“All peach varieties have pros and cons, but the Gloria is one that doesn’t seem to have a con,” said Danner. “It has an outstanding appearance with terrific color and great shelf life. It typically packs hard, but softens up between the grocers’ shelves and the consumers’ kitchens. The eating quality is outstanding.

“It is still the reigning star of the new varieties,” he continued. “We started planting Gloria trees four years ago, and they are now yielding really nice commercial volumes. We expect it to be a major player in the Jersey peach deal in years to come.”

Eastern Propak is committed to the Jersey Fresh locally grown program and the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council, which he said does a great job for all Jersey producers.

“We’re now working with the South Jersey Food Bank in the Just Peachy Salsa program,” said Danner. “We donate the fruit and Campbell’s [Soup Co. Foundation in Camden, N.J.] donates the labor and time to make the salsa. It is then donated to the food bank, which sells it to generate capital to do all of the great work they do for the needy.”

Eastern Propak offers year-round cold storage and a comprehensive repack operation. It takes both domestic and imported fruits and stores them for customers. The company, which started 18 years ago, is owned by a cooperative of growers. It packs New Jersey peaches under the “Jersey Fruit” label. Sunny Valley International Inc., also in Glassboro, markets the fruit produced under the label.

“We’re totally optimistic all the way this season,” said Danner. “And we encourage everyone to take advantage of this outstanding crop that we have to offer.”