Ballantine to market stone fruit from P-R Farms
Ballantine to market stone fruit from P-R Farms
CLOVIS, CA -- "Ballantine Produce Co. Inc. [in Reedley, CA] and P-R Farms Inc. [here] are pleased to announce a strategic arrangement whereby, beginning with the current growing season, Ballantine will manage the farming and be responsible for the packing and marketing of P-R Farms' stone fruit," stated a press release issued jointly April 17 by the two companies.
"The implementation of this plant allows P-R Farms, under the management of Patrick V. Ricchiuti and [his] son, Vincent Ricchiuti, to strengthen its position as a leading producer of almonds. This agreement will also enable expansion of Ballantine's marketing programs while maintaining services for P-R Farms' stone fruit customer base both domestically and internationally," the release added.
The marketing alliance with Ballantine is just one of several major changes at P-R Farms, according to Pat Ricchiuti, the company's president. "We are getting out of the table grape business, too," he told The Produce News April 22. "We just turned it over to Fowler Packing. They are taking over the farming operation" as well as the packing and marketing, "and ultimately, they are going to buy the vineyards."
The property involved consists of 150 acres of Flame seedless, Thompson seedless, Summer Royal, Autumn Royal, Crimson seedless and Ruby seedless vineyards as well as a small block recently grafted over to Scarlet Royal, he said.
"We didn't have enough [grapes] to compete," Mr. Ricchiuti said. "We had 100,000 boxes, and we had to compete against people who've got 3 [million] to 4 million."
With the stone fruit, the situation is a little different. P-R Farms will retain ownership of the land and will still have some involvement in the farming, he explained. "We are going to be using our equipment and our people. We are going to be involved pretty intimately. It is a cooperative farming effort utilizing [Ballantine's] management and our work force to get the crop off this year. The biggest impact is we are not going to be doing the packing and marketing."
The arrangement is "a good deal for them and a good deal for us," he said. Ballantine has "connections with the bigger chains," and "we think they have the muscle to be able to get a better market than what we were in a position to do with the volume that we had."
The arrangement with Ballantine is just for the current season, Mr. Ricchiuti said. "We will see what shakes out at the end of the season, and then we will re-evaluate," perhaps make some adjustments, and then "establish another arrangement for subsequent years."
One reason P-R Farms is taking the stone fruit arrangement one season at a time is because a fair amount of the company's peach, plum and nectarine acreage is located in a prime development area in northern Clovis. Those orchards are what Vincent Ricchiuti, P-R's director of operations, described as "hot development properties. We are trying to focus some of our attention on land development," he said. So subject to evaluation at the end of the season, a decision may be made to take some of the orchards out of production and develop the land.
"We have done a lot" of that already, "and it has worked very well for us," he added. "What we have done with most of those moneys is go out and purchase more land in Madera [CA]" for farming purposes.
However, the focus on the farming expansion has been almonds and will continue to be so. "We were already into [almonds] pretty heavy, and we are going to get into it heavier," said Pat Ricchiuti. "You go with what is a good business decision at the time."
Growing almonds and houses have both been more profitable in recent years than growing stone fruit.
In addition, "we are looking at getting into the olive oil business," he said. P-R Farms also grows wine grapes and raisins, "and we have a few citrus and a few [Granny Smith] apples left," Mr. Ricchiuti said. "It remains to be seen what we are going to do with those." P-R Farms may go ahead and harvest, pack and market its apples and oranges this year. However, "if somebody comes to me and offers me an offer I can't refuse for the crop on the trees, we might be out of that one, too," he said.
On the sales side, Sales Manager Robert Rocha said, "My focus is going to be turned to almonds. We are going to grow in the next few years quite rapidly" with new plantings coming on," so not having the stone fruit to worry about will enable him to "allocate a lot more time and effort to promoting our almonds." He will also be selling the company's apples and oranges this season if those are still in the program.
"P-R Farms has a long-established farming methodology that ties the production to the needs of specific niche markets, with particular focus on specialty varieties and key export markets that require very specific markets, all adding to their strength," Jerry DiBuduo, chief operating officer at Ballantine, said in the press release. "We expect to capitalize on and marry this with our pre-existing supplies and increased focus in these niche areas."
"The implementation of this plant allows P-R Farms, under the management of Patrick V. Ricchiuti and [his] son, Vincent Ricchiuti, to strengthen its position as a leading producer of almonds. This agreement will also enable expansion of Ballantine's marketing programs while maintaining services for P-R Farms' stone fruit customer base both domestically and internationally," the release added.
The marketing alliance with Ballantine is just one of several major changes at P-R Farms, according to Pat Ricchiuti, the company's president. "We are getting out of the table grape business, too," he told The Produce News April 22. "We just turned it over to Fowler Packing. They are taking over the farming operation" as well as the packing and marketing, "and ultimately, they are going to buy the vineyards."
The property involved consists of 150 acres of Flame seedless, Thompson seedless, Summer Royal, Autumn Royal, Crimson seedless and Ruby seedless vineyards as well as a small block recently grafted over to Scarlet Royal, he said.
"We didn't have enough [grapes] to compete," Mr. Ricchiuti said. "We had 100,000 boxes, and we had to compete against people who've got 3 [million] to 4 million."
With the stone fruit, the situation is a little different. P-R Farms will retain ownership of the land and will still have some involvement in the farming, he explained. "We are going to be using our equipment and our people. We are going to be involved pretty intimately. It is a cooperative farming effort utilizing [Ballantine's] management and our work force to get the crop off this year. The biggest impact is we are not going to be doing the packing and marketing."
The arrangement is "a good deal for them and a good deal for us," he said. Ballantine has "connections with the bigger chains," and "we think they have the muscle to be able to get a better market than what we were in a position to do with the volume that we had."
The arrangement with Ballantine is just for the current season, Mr. Ricchiuti said. "We will see what shakes out at the end of the season, and then we will re-evaluate," perhaps make some adjustments, and then "establish another arrangement for subsequent years."
One reason P-R Farms is taking the stone fruit arrangement one season at a time is because a fair amount of the company's peach, plum and nectarine acreage is located in a prime development area in northern Clovis. Those orchards are what Vincent Ricchiuti, P-R's director of operations, described as "hot development properties. We are trying to focus some of our attention on land development," he said. So subject to evaluation at the end of the season, a decision may be made to take some of the orchards out of production and develop the land.
"We have done a lot" of that already, "and it has worked very well for us," he added. "What we have done with most of those moneys is go out and purchase more land in Madera [CA]" for farming purposes.
However, the focus on the farming expansion has been almonds and will continue to be so. "We were already into [almonds] pretty heavy, and we are going to get into it heavier," said Pat Ricchiuti. "You go with what is a good business decision at the time."
Growing almonds and houses have both been more profitable in recent years than growing stone fruit.
In addition, "we are looking at getting into the olive oil business," he said. P-R Farms also grows wine grapes and raisins, "and we have a few citrus and a few [Granny Smith] apples left," Mr. Ricchiuti said. "It remains to be seen what we are going to do with those." P-R Farms may go ahead and harvest, pack and market its apples and oranges this year. However, "if somebody comes to me and offers me an offer I can't refuse for the crop on the trees, we might be out of that one, too," he said.
On the sales side, Sales Manager Robert Rocha said, "My focus is going to be turned to almonds. We are going to grow in the next few years quite rapidly" with new plantings coming on," so not having the stone fruit to worry about will enable him to "allocate a lot more time and effort to promoting our almonds." He will also be selling the company's apples and oranges this season if those are still in the program.
"P-R Farms has a long-established farming methodology that ties the production to the needs of specific niche markets, with particular focus on specialty varieties and key export markets that require very specific markets, all adding to their strength," Jerry DiBuduo, chief operating officer at Ballantine, said in the press release. "We expect to capitalize on and marry this with our pre-existing supplies and increased focus in these niche areas."
