A problem-free harvest resulting in good sizing and increased volume should lead to an excellent date season for Coachella, CA-based SunDate LLC.

Reached in late October as the Medjool date harvest was coming to its conclusion, salesman D.J. Ryan said, “We had no weather struggles this year. We dodged a bullet a bit as when we did get rain last week [Oct. 15-17,] all the fields had already been picked at least once.”

Dates being harvested in California. The California date crop is harvested in September and October and marketed year-round. He explained that much less fruit was at risk when a freak rainstorm rolled through the desert on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 15. It was the same storm that created mudslides and trapped drivers on the famed Grapevine mountain pass between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Joaquin Valley. California dates, which are mostly grown in the Coachella Valley, are harvested in September and October and marketed year-round from cold storage and the freezer.

“Two years ago we got hit with monsoonal rains that caused a lot of damage, but this year we appear to have come out unscathed from the rain we had,” Ryan said.

He said the late timing was the key to the lack of damage.

With the harvest in storage, SunDate does have a bumper crop this year. Ryan said the date palm trees produced a very good crop this year that sized well, and, in addition, the firm is harvesting more trees than ever before. “This year we have several date gardens coming into production for the first time and we have several other gardens that are still young and are still moving toward peak production.” He explained that it takes about seven years for a garden to start producing a marketable crop. And then for the next four or five years, volume from that garden increases as the trees grow and mature. Ryan said it is usually not until about year 12 that a date tree is in full production.

The newest wrinkle at SunDate is the continued increase in its organic date production. “This year about 20 percent of our production is organic,” Ryan said. “Ultimately, we expect it be a pretty even 50-50 split between conventional and organic production.”

SunDate is a partnership with noted grape grower and shipper Anthony Vineyards of Bakersfield, CA, owning 50 percent of the operation. Anthony Vineyards and another local grower created SunDate to market their dates. While there is an arms-length distance between the grape shipper and the date operation, Ryan said Anthony Vineyards has loaned its organic marketing expertise to help SunDate move into the organic arena. That grape shipper has a significant volume of organic grapes and has built up its program over the years.

While dates are marketed all year long, Ryan said the November-December holiday season is among the top date-buying times for consumers. Dates are a great fall item and are ever-present on holiday menus. However, he said retailers have changed their buying habits in recent years. Years ago, he said many retailers would order a significant volume in early November, stack up the date cartons in their warehouse and keep their own inventory for the two end-of-the-year holiday months. “Not too many retailers warehouse their own dates anymore,” he said. “Now they want weekly shipments.”

SunDate is happy to comply and also has several promotional opportunities available to retailers to help promote the crop. The firm customizes its offering to each retailer’s need but the opportunities include in-store demos, seasonal packaging and display boxes.