Yellow peaches to carry SGS into the fall

With a good California summer stone fruit season to build on, Scattaglia Growers and Shippers are expecting to finish the season on a strong note with a solid supply of yellow peaches through October as well as some yellow nectarines and plums lasting into September.

“2023 has been a good year in terms of FOB prices for California Stone Fruit,” said SGS Director of Marketing Kira Navison, adding that the higher prices help growers in a variety of ways. “With their costs continuously rising, it’s nice to be able to reward them in any way we can. We feel very fortunate to have the support we do from our strong and loyal customers.” SGS has been growing their volume for the last few years with that growth being existing growers and new blocks coming into production.

She noted that in 2023 SGS added a few more growers to its family of existing farmers. This has helped the Kingsburg, CA-based grower-packer provide many good options for their tree fruit customers through the summer and into the fall. “Heading into the back end of the season, SGS will be strong in yellow peaches through October, while yellow nectarines will start to wrap up once we get into September,” she said. “We will carry black plums into September, while red plums will start to clean up toward Labor Day.”

Navison expects good movement on yellow peaches well into October with promotable volume. She said consumer demand for the California tree fruit crops has been solid all summer and she expect that to continue until the end of the season. “By mid-September, we should be heading into the final stages of production on yellow nectarines and white flesh nectarines,” she said.

SGS provides its growers’ fruit in the traditional two-layer trap pack box, volume fill box, as well as single layer euros, RPCs and bags under the SUN DISK and SUN JOY label.

This year’s California tree fruit crop was aided by a mild summer after experiencing a very wet spring. Navison said there were only a few weeks of 100+ degree heat, which is rare for the summer in the San Joaquin Valley. “We’ll see what the fall will bring, however at this point we don’t see any weather issues coming,” she said in mid-August. “Overall, we are pleased as to how the season has progressed.”

SGS has a full selection of fresh California table grapes, which will continue to be marketed after the stone fruit season finishes. “With a lot of hard work from our grower base and our valued employees, we look forward to a strong finish to the season,” Navison said.

SGS has had a busy season selling fruit along with having some promotions and additions to their team. Not only did Navison join the team, but Steve Rusca was promoted to general manager and Alexandra Gomez was added to the finance department.

Navison said the company is already well into the planning stages for next year’s crop as SGS will introduce a full organic line of California stone fruit, which has been in the works for the past three years. “The addition of the organic stone fruit will come from Kliewer Farms, who is currently an important part of our overall program,” she said.

“SGS will market approximately 100,000 boxes of organic stone fruit in 2024, adding to our conventional line of approximately 2.5 million cartons.”