Mountain View Fruit Sales is one of the leading stone fruit grower-packer-shippers in the San Joaquin Valley in Reedley, CA.

“We also grow and sell citrus and grapes as well,” said Krista Beckstead, director of marketing for the company. “What makes us stand out from the competition is our stone fruit brands and unique conditioning process.”

For instance, Summeripe, its flagship product, is a flavor-focused brand embraced by small independent store owners as well as large retail chains.

“Our unique conditioning process for Summeripe fruit has been developed over time using a special ripening room, carefully monitoring temperature and humidity, achieving perfect ripeness before cooling,” Beckstead said. “This offers the ultimate eating experience for the end consumer.”

Last year offered a few challenges with smaller volumes but the company was still able to meet its partners’ needs and deliver top-quality fruit to consumers.

Currently, there are a lot of changes happening in the stone fruit industry and the company sees this as an opportunity for growth and expansion.

“Of course Mother Nature is still in control and time will tell, but we are hoping to have a great quality season with plenty of opportunities presented to us,” Beckstead said. “We embrace these new opportunities and a new season just around the corner with open arms.”

In Mountain View Fruit Sales’ pursuit of excellence in orchard management, it employs a meticulous process of developing new varieties within its dedicated test block orchards.

“This endeavor is a testament to our commitment to innovation and the continuous improvement of fruit quality, yield and resilience,” Beckstead said. “There is a combination of key factors that contribute to our success in this industry — horticulture knowledge, orchard management, quality control, technology adoption, teamwork, market research and business management.”

Another is implementing sustainable practices. The company has adopted sustainable farming practices to minimize environmental impact and to meet market demands for socially and environmentally responsible products.

“The most important one is building and nurturing current relationships with our retail partners,” Beckstead said.

Mountain View Fruit Sales has a wide variety of customers ranging from the independently owned small store front to the large nationwide retail chains.

“We cherish each special relationship we’ve built with each of them and stride ourselves on being more than just a box of fruit,” Beckstead said. “Not only do we like to be more than a box of fruit to our partners, but we also like to think outside of the box and continue to push ourselves to be innovative and creative when marketing to our consumers. This could entail a fun giveaway on social media, getting our product out in front of consumers at an event or creating exciting display options for our retailers to entice consumers at the store level.”

The company prides itself on being a family of growers and the farming legacy of multiple generations is its point of difference.

“We are family-owned-and-operated and our fruit comes from family farmers, many of whom live on land farmed by their parents and grandparents,” Beckstead said. “Old time traditions are still practiced, and knowledge is passed down, one generation to the next.”