Titan Farms, a leading East Coast peach grower, is expanding into the fruit and vegetable processing landscape through a new processing facility. The operation, Palmetto Processing Solutions, is a sister company to Titan Farms.

The combination of the two companies brings complete control of its supply chain from field to packaging. In 2016 alone, Palmetto Processing expects to process over 10 million pounds of peaches in puree and frozen formats — both individually quick frozen and bulk.

The new company is Phase II of an overall expansion that began last year. In 2015, Titan Farms took its quality reputation to the next level and improved its already stellar operations in quality, traceability, food safety and sustainability, which included a cutting-edge-technology packingline. With its expansion into processing, all the same values remain equally as important in the processing space as they are in the fresh produce industry.

“We initially began exploring this opportunity in our quest to be more sustainable as a company,” Lori Anne Carr, president of Palmetto Processing and vice president of Titan Farms, said in a press release. “Before deciding to proceed in this direction, we explored other options such as renewable energy and composting and found that product line expansion into processing was our best business decision. We truly have a passion for being environmentally conscious in our operations and look forward to continually improving our sustainability.”

“We noticed a shrinking supply of western peaches in the market at the same time the demand for processed fruits and vegetables increased,” Chalmers Carr, president of Titan Farms, added in the press release. “We are already running the largest peach operation on the east coast and we see processing as a natural fit and next step.”

The company broke ground on the $8 million state-of-the-art processing facility in December and expects to complete the 65,000-square-foot expansion by the start of peach season in May.