Johnston Farms in Edison, CA, has long been in the business of growing and marketing citrus and potatoes. But lately, “the potato deal has not been too kind to anybody’s pocketbook,” Dennis Johnston, a partner in the company, said in an interview with The Produce News Oct. 17. “Demand is down and oversupply is still a big problem” even though an industry cooperative was “supposed to” facilitate a reduction in potato acreage to stabilize prices. “It hasn’t worked,” he said.

The response of Johnston Farms to the existing market forces has been to reduce its own potato acreage and increase its citrus acreage, Johnston said. “We are constantly planting more citrus.” In particular, “we are increasing specialties and late-season Navels.”

In the Navel category, the company grows numerous varieties. “We start with Fukumotos and Becks,” Johnston said. “Then we move into the Washington, Atwood and Fisher group” for midseason varieties. Toward the end of the season, “we have Autumn Golds and Late Lanes.”

Johnston Farms continues to plant more of the late varieties “to extend our markets a little further into April and May,” Johnston said. “We really like Autumn Gold for flavor. It maybe doesn’t hold into June” the way some others such as Barnfields do, “but we like the flavor for export late February and March. That one we have planted quite a bit of.”

The market has been good in recent years for late-season Navels, Johnston said. “There is a real window for the Navels into May.”

In specialty citrus, Satsuma Mandarins are a major focus for Johnston Farms. According to Johnston, their popularity is increasing due to the high flavor of the variety. Johnston Farms’ Satsumas generally start about the 10th to 15th of November, and “I don’t see that changing very much” this year, he said. Some growers were already picking them, but “we are not,” as they are “still very green and not very edible right now.” The season will extend into mid-winter. “On Satsumas, we like to be done by the 20th of January. Then we will start with some Murcotts and some Tahoe Golds, and then finish up the season with Gold Nuggets”

In mid-October the Navel harvest was already under way, however. “We have been picking here already about 10 days now” and expect to start packing Nov. 27. That is earlier than normal, but “the flavor is pretty good” already on the Navels with sugars “higher than they have been in a long time.”

All of the company’s Navel production is “right here close to Edison,” Johnston said. “The Mandarins will go up into Tulare and Fresno counties.

The company’s “primary fancy label” is “Blue Jay,” while choice fruit is packed in the “Victor” label, he said.

In packaging, Johnston Farms has opted to go to a four-pound clamshell for Mandarins rather than the mesh bags used as a retail pack by many shippers. “The Satsumas won’t stand up to the mechanization” used in packing the mesh bags, he said. “The Mandarins are the most delicate of all the citrus,” so clamshells are “our alternative to the bag.”