Rivermaid Trading Co. in Lodi, CA, handled sales of stone fruit and other products grown and packed by WesPak Inc. during the 2012 season, following a merger of the two companies’ sales groups April 1, 2012. On Oct. 1, following the end of the shipping season, Rivermaid and WesPak finalized a full merger that brought WesPak into the Rivermaid group of companies and significantly expanded the Rivermaid product line, according to Blair Richardson, president and managing partner of WesPak.

Beginning with the 2013 season, WesPak is now “the farming and packing side of the business” for Rivermaid stone fruit, grapes, pomegranates, kiwifruit and persimmons, Mr. Richardson told The Produce News May 15.

“The programs of both companies were bolstered by the two companies coming together,” said Dave Parker, marketing adviser for Rivermaid.

The “broad array of products” that WesPak brings to market include several new stone fruit varieties, including proprietary Sun World International varieties, that are just coming into commercial production this season, Mr. Parker said. The stone fruit lineup is “very strong in plums, nectarines and peaches. We start the season with some really spectacular varieties of apricots” which the company’s field man refers to a “the next generation of apricots,” including Honeycot and WesPak’s own proprietary Wescot apricot. “Then we are going to move into Coral Cots” toward the end of May.

In other stone fruit categories, Rivermaid is “one of three companies that was selected by Sun World to market and sell their proprietary apricots and plums,” Mr. Parker said.

Elaborating, Mr. Richardson explained that Sunwest Fruit Co., Wawona Packing Co. LLC and Rivermaid/WesPak “formed a group” that has “ the exclusive rights to Sun World varieties of apricots, plums, peaches and nectarines in the United States. We do all the packing and sales for the fruit grown by Sun World as well as the fruit that we grow ourselves in those proprietary varieties.”

Among the Sun World varieties Rivermaid now offers are Black Diamond plums, which have a black skin and red flesh, Black Giant plums, which have black skin and yellow flesh, several outstanding peach varieties, and the Superstar nectarine, “which is just an absolutely fantastic early season nectarine, truly better than any other nectarine available in May and early June,” he said.

The partnership with Sun World started in 2009, “and the trees that we planted in 2009 are entering into their first crops right now,” said Mr. Richardson. “It has been a great partnership,” and it gives Rivermaid/WesPak “a premium product that brings premium prices. We are really excited to be a part of that.”

Rivermaid’s volume of those varieties “will continue to grow as these orchards come into maturity,” he added. “In my opinion, the most important thing that we are talking about is the fact that this merger provides our customer base with a source of products throughout the year.” Rivermaid operates 12 months of the year, and the stone fruit component of the company’s offerings starts in the spring with cherries and apricots, then continues “all the way into fall.”

Sun World varieties are not the only new varieties in the program. “WesPak, for some time, has been accelerating the rate of change in their orchards,” Mr. Parker said. The company had “a very strong list of varieties to begin with, and that is one of the reasons that Sun World thought that WesPak was a good candidate to market and grow its varieties. WesPak, for a number of years, has been replacing a higher percentage of its acres” each year with newer, better varieties “than the industry average.”

“More than 40 percent of our orchards have been planted since 2011,” said Mr. Richardson. “We have a very young, aggressive orchard program with new varieties that we think are all focused on flavor profiles that the consumers will enjoy.” A number of those are just coming into commercial production this year.

“The Sun World lineup is an exciting facet of a bigger picture that is equally exciting,” Mr. Parker said.

“We have some proprietary cherry varieties that will be coming in production beginning next year,” Mr. Richardson said.

Rivermaid “for a number of years has been the number one producer of pears in California,” Mr. Parker said. “With the addition of the cherries brought to the table by WesPak, which are now being packed in the ‘Rivermaid’ label and sold by Rivermaid, that puts Rivermaid in a lead position in the cherry industry, too,” making it “probably among the top three cherry players in California.”