Valhalla’s stone fruit program is heavy to apricots and plums
Valhalla’s stone fruit program is heavy to apricots and plums
“We are heavy in apricots and plums, not real heavy in peaches and nectarines. We’ve got a few [peach and nectarine] varieties spread out during the summer, but predominantly we are a plum and apricot house,” said David Stone, president and chief executive officer of Valhalla Sales & Marketing Inc. in Kingsburg, CA.
In apricots, Valhalla has “a couple of experimental varieties that will be coming in. We will see some production out of these varieties this year that have shown promise,” Mr. Stone said. The new varieties have not yet been named. They will have similar timing to Patterson — starting around June 15 — and they are being grown in the vicinity of Patterson, CA. “We will send those out to our different retail accounts and ask them to take a look at them and see what they think of them,” he said.
“Our apricot program is one of the strongest programs we’ve got. It is very good, and it continues to grow every year,” he said.
In peaches and nectarines, Valhalla has both yellow flesh and white flesh varieties starting in June. “We’re a little bit later” than some other peach and nectarine shippers,” he said. The company’s program in those commodities is about the same as in the past.
New on sales at Valhalla this year is Gerry Scheidt, who joined the team around April 1. He was previously with Gerawan Farming, and Mr. Stone said, “He’s got a real strong customer base following.”
Also on sales, along with Mr. Stone, is Mitch Ritchie who has been with the company for about three years.
“In our apricot program, we are experimenting with a few new pack styles” this year, Mr. Stone said. Among them is a single-layer Euro carton. “We’ve got some accounts” that are looking for that pack, “so we may be doing some of those this year.” Also “there is more of a demand for RPC Euros,” he said.
“We’ve got every pack style you can imagine from consumer packs to two-layers to Euros to volume fill,” Mr. Stone said. Apricots are “pretty delicate” and don’t lend themselves well to all pack styles. “I’ve tried different bags. I’ve tried those soft net bags. I’ve tried punnets. I’ve tried clamshells. We have experimented with every pack style imaginable over the past 20 years,” and the tray pack is “still the best way by far to pack apricots.”
