With summer moving into full swing, Gilroy, CA-based Uesugi Farms Inc. is moving into a full production time slot with multiple deals and multiple crops.

Of course the company is well known for its year-round bell pepper program with red, yellow and green peppers produced in many districts throughout the year, but during the summer, the firm also adds several other items on more of a seasonal basis. “I am a big believer in year-round programs,” said Pete Aiello, general manager and a partner in the growing-shipper operation with his father, Joe Aiello. “But having a seasonal corn deal works for us. Between Brentwood [CA] and Gilroy, we have sweet corn from June through October.”

The Brentwood corn deal is well known, especially in Northern California, and it has a lot of cache with California retailers. Largely for that reason, Uesugi Farms has been in the Brentwood corn deal for the past three years. “We started in a small way three seasons ago [2011] and then we had a big jump in acreage last season and this year we have doubled our acreage again.”

Aiello said it looks like it could be a very good deal this year. Speaking on Friday, June 28, as the Fourth of July pull was at full-throttle, he said the “market was hot. We know it will be sluggish after the Fourth, but we expect a pretty good year.”

While Brentwood corn has a great reputation and Uesugi enjoy trading on that reputation, Aiello does not believe the corn itself is any better than the sweet corn the firm grows in Gilroy. “The quality in Gilroy can’t be beat,” he said. “I think it is every bit as good as Brentwood, if not better.”

But perception is reality and if consumers want to create a greater demand, and a better market, for Brentwood corn, that works for Uesugi.

The company also offers a number of other items including several varieties of chili peppers, bok choy, napa and strawberries, but bell peppers are its bread-and-butter crop. It is one of the larger year-round producers of bell peppers in the country. Besides its fresh crop, it sells almost half of its bell peppers to the processor market. Aiello said peppers are processed in many ways and for many different uses including for salsas and sauces, purees, julienned, diced, and individual quick-frozen. He said many of the processed peppers are used by institutional feeders as well as fast-food operations such as Subway and Toga. “The processed sales set a great base for us,” he said. “It gives us a guaranteed sales for almost half of our production.”

Currently Uesugi Farms is offering peppers in both bulk and place pack configurations. The standard size peppers are its specialty, but, Aiello said. “We are looking at the mini-pepper market. There is a lot of interest in those; it’s just a trigger we haven’t pulled yet.”

Again, speaking in late June, he said the red pepper market was very good but the green pepper market was in an oversupply situation. Aiello was hoping for a good summer but he said August is always difficult because of the many home grown deals around the country. Uesugi can’t slow its production for that one month as those are the same plants that are providing pepper for both the preceding and ensuing months.

“We have to just put it in high gear and compete valiantly,” he said.

Some years Mother Nature is kind and the one-month home grown deals don’t produce bumper crops; other years supply outstrips demand. “We know the dog days of August arte coming and we just have to use several different marketing strategies to get through them,” he said.