“I am highly optimistic about this season’s New Jersey peach and nectarine programs,” Jeff Danner, general manager of Eastern Propak LLC in Glassboro, NJ, told The Produce News.

“I work with four New Jersey growers: Summit City Farms in Glassboro, which is our largest supplier; Heilig Orchards in Richwood; F&R Grasso Farms in Mullica Hill; and Gala Orchards in Elmer. I met with all of them in the past week, and they are all reporting a very full crop,” he said June 28.

Danner said that there have been some recent weather issues in New Jersey, noting that “the rain just won’t stop,” but it is not expected to affect the volume or quality of the peach crop. While the moisture is a good thing, it does have the potential to bring in some condition issues such as brown rot.

Jeff Danner, general manager of Eastern Propak LLC.“The growers have spray programs that are designed to minimize the risk of brown rot, and I take steps at our packing facility to make sure that the packouts are always great,” he noted. “We also use ‘Scholar,’ a post-harvest fungicide that gives the peaches a bit of a luster with a light wax coating. We always keep our fingers crossed right up until we’re harvesting, packing and shipping, but right now everything is looking good and lining up for a very good New Jersey peach season.”

Summit City Farms started harvesting the PF1, the earliest peach of the season, on June 28. Heilig Orchards was scheduled to start the PF2 variety the following week. The Century variety is the first really good-volume peach variety, and it was expected to start July 8-9. Following the Century the John Boy variety will start and take the program into mid-July.

“A slew of varieties then start coming on strong, making for a good promotional period,” said Danner. “We’ll be packing strong for all of the majors through Labor Day. After that, we’ll have one or two late varieties that will take us through mid-September.”

He concurred with peach growers in the state that late-variety peaches are very high quality and that people — customers and consumers alike — should enjoy them well into September.

Danner pointed out how well the relatively new Gloria variety has taken off.

“There are over 100 peach varieties,” he said. “And they all have their pros and cons. But the Gloria is one that we can’t seem to find a con about. It has an outstanding appearance with terrific color, and it has a great shelf life. It typically packs hard, but softens up between the grocers’ shelves and the consumers’ kitchens. The eating quality is outstanding.”

Eastern Propak started packing the Gloria three years ago, but with light volumes because the trees were still very young. Volumes increased over the past two years, and this year the trees are in full production.

“Trees that are four to five years old produce a great crop, and we expect to pack upwards of 35,000 boxes of the Gloria this year,” said Danner. “This level of movement will continue for more than a decade before the trees begin to taper off. But by then growers will have plenty of newer trees in the ground.

“The Gloria has shown the ability to stay hard on the tree until it reaches full maturity,” he continued. “From a grower perspective, that’s a home run.”

Eastern Propak is committed to the Jersey Fresh locally grown program, which Danner said does a great job of promoting New Jersey peaches.

The company offers year-round cold storage and a comprehensive repack operation. It takes both domestic and imported fruit and stores them for customers. The company, which started 17 years ago, is owned by a cooperative of growers. It packs New Jersey peaches under the “Jersey Fruit” label. Sunny Valley International Inc., also in Glassboro, markets the fruit produced under the label.

Eastern Propak is heavily invested in Chilean imports today, and it has broadened its domestic supply base.

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

“Our Chilean grape deal increased by 35 percent from January to the end of May this year,” he continued. “Our imports are now a major part of our business.”