Demand may be on the rise for fresh California figs, but markets are expanding as well for tree nuts such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts, and J. Marchini Farms in Le Grand, CA, sees greater opportunity in the nuts, with fewer obstacles.

Unlike some growers who have been pulling out fig orchards in order to plant nut trees, “we are going to keep our figs,” said Marc Marchini, sales and marketing manager for the company’s figs. “But I think that we are not going to expand the figs. Rather, I am going to go where the real growth is — tree nuts.”

The fresh fig market “is alive and well,” Mr. Marchini told The Produce News. Still, growers are taking out fig orchards, and have been for several years, largely “because there is a big issue with labor.”

Jeff Marchini, chief executive officer of J. Marchini & Son, with Marc Marchini in the company’s warehouse.There is a problem with labor availability for harvest “all over the Central Valley,” Mr. Marchini said. “There is a labor deficit.” It has been rumored that the problem would increase, and indeed the labor shortage is more severe this year, he said. Fresh figs are “a highly labor-intensive crop. Half of the cost of the crop is in the labor. It is very expensive to harvest the fig, compared to [many] other crops.”

By contrast, nut harvesting is highly mechanized.

“There is good demand for the fresh fig out there. I think demand is increasing,” he said. “But I think it is going to be a challenge to supply that demand,” and the anticipated shortage of labor at harvest time will be a major contributor to that challenge.

“We are going to try to do what we did last year” in terms of the volume of figs harvested, he said. “Last year was a good year for us.”

The company is also planning to focus its marketing efforts more on retail customers.

“I am moving more and more figs to retail, because I like what retailers can do” with their merchandising programs, Mr. Marchini said. “We are moving to retail as much as possible and getting [the retailers] to co-merchandise figs with other items.”

Marchini’s figs are all grown in Merced County in the northern San Joaquin Valley.

“We are going to start about June 15,” possibly a little earlier, Mr. Marchini said. That is several weeks later than the shippers who have production out of the southern desert.

J. Marchini Farms is perhaps best known for its radicchio, and the company also grows and ships an assortment of other specialty vegetables.