Jeff Danner, general manager of Eastern Propak LLC in Glassboro, NJ, told The Produce News that New Jersey’s peach movement started slower than normal this year due to a cool early spring.

“As we headed into summer, movement continued to run a couple of weeks behind,” said Danner. “We typically wrap up around Labor Day, but growers are pretty much of the mind that they’ll go into the middle of September.”

Jeff Danner, general manager of Eastern PropakEastern Propak works with four New Jersey growers who cooperatively own the company. They are Summit City Farms in Glassboro, which is its largest supplier; Heilig Orchards in Richwood; F&R Grasso Farms in Mullica Hill; and Gala Orchards in Elmer. The growers produce white and yellow peaches and nectarines. Eastern Propak packs the peaches, and Sunny Valley International, also headquartered in Glassboro, does the marketing. Besides growers’ labels, the company uses the “Jersey Fresh” label, the state’s locally grown initiative to which it is strongly committed. Danner said the state does an outstanding job of promoting Jersey peaches.

He noted that a late-running New Jersey peach crop is not a particularly good thing.

“Once we’re into September, people start thinking about pumpkins, scarecrows and apples,” he said. “This is unfortunate because New Jersey growers produce some really outstanding late-season peaches today.”

Eastern Propak runs numerous programs simultaneously throughout the year. Besides New Jersey peaches and nectarines in late August, it was also heavily into its summer citrus program.

“Our summer citrus program is expanding quickly and greatly,” Danner said. “Our citrus-bagging program has grown tremendously — so much so that we added two bagging lines in recent years. We are also handling a wide range of fruits from South America, Europe and South Africa. We’ve also expanded our domestic supply base.”

The company was also running several apple programs from the Southern Hemisphere in August, which it packs in clamshells for big box stores and in bags for retail customers.

Despite the late-running New Jersey peach and nectarine season, Danner said the fruit has been pretty good quality this year.

“Growers were presented with some challenges in June due to moisture,” he explained. “This causes them to spray more heavily than normal, and that increases their overhead. But they are real pros at what they do, and they do a really good job at minimizing the risk of brown rot.

“I also take steps here at our packing facility to make sure that the packouts are always outstanding,” he continued. “We use ‘Scholar,’ a post-harvest fungicide that gives the peaches a bit of a luster with a light wax coating.”

As summer progresses into fall, Eastern Propak’s domestic program begins to wind down. It continues with its summer citrus import program until late October, and then it switches to Northern Hemisphere fruits from Spain, Israel and Morocco.

“Around the first week of October, we’ll get our first containers of citrus from Sicily,” Danner added. “We also get kiwifruits, apples and pears from the northern part of Italy. And we handle Italian chestnuts. We polish and brush them and bag them here at our facility.”

Danner also expressed his excitement over the start of the Brazilian mango program, which started in mid-August.

“We handle large volumes — starting with 10 to 12 container loads a week and ultimately handling 50 containers weekly,” he said. “We handle all of the seasonal varieties as they are coming on in Brazil, including the Tommy Atkins. This program runs through the month of November.”

Danner is a seasoned produce professional with close to 40 years of experience in the industry. His son, Steven Danner, has also worked at Eastern Propak for the past couple of years.

“Our operations manager, Walter Aupperle, officially retired on August 9,” said Danner. “He was with us for over 12 years. Steven worked directly with Walter since joining the company, and he has now taken over Walter’s title.”

Eastern Propak was founded about 18 years ago. It offers year-round cold storage and a comprehensive repack operation. It takes both domestic and imported fruits and stores them for customers. The company is owned by its grower-suppliers.