“It’s incredibly important and really the backbone of the operation; the New Jersey peach program is how we started and how we grew,” said Rob Kearney, the company’s CEO. “We did about 7 million pounds last year and it’s grown considerably over the past 20 years or so.”

When discussing what makes New Jersey peaches so special, Kearney points to the climate and soil in the area.

“The peach farmers have been cultivating these peaches for so long, they’ve developed a fantastic product,” he said. “I feel New Jersey peaches are the best out there. I know everyone gets excited for the season, and in a few weeks, we should start seeing the first batches of peaches coming in to be packed. They are a real delicacy.”

It was three peach seasons ago when Eastern Propak installed a new state-of-the-art Aweta packing line.

“It’s an incredible machine; it uses infrared technology and because it’s our third season, we have gotten as much as we can out of it and we are really excited about using it to pack peaches this year,” Kearney said. “It sorts them to exact specification and makes sure that only the best product gets through.”

The Aweta line is significantly more efficient than what Eastern Propak was utilizing before, which was a good machine for 20 years, but did not have the technology to do what today’s machines can.

“Recently, we not only used it pack peaches, but we’re now packing plums and apples, and we have the capability to do other commodities as well,” Kearney said.

The company ships peaches, primarily to the Northeast and Midwest, sending to many of the big box stores such as Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe’s.

“All the major supermarkets really, really want the jersey peaches in their stores,” Kearney said.

According to Kearney, 2025 has been a strong year for Eastern Propak, with all commodities coming in solid.

“It’s shaping up to be the best year we’ve ever had,” he said. “Every year has been getting progressively better; we’re refining our operations, we’re embracing technology — we put a lot of automation into the system — and we have a very highly tenured workforce.”

The company also recently increased capacity and now has more storage space available than it has in previous years.

“When you put all that together, it’s really helped us grow the business and become the packer of choice for a lot of our customers,” Kearney said. “We’re incredible flexible. We have requirements in knowing what we need to pack on any given day; however, we embrace changes. Customers like the fact that they can call us late in the afternoon and say they need something tomorrow or even the same day, and we do it. I think other suppliers would not do that for customers.”

Eastern Propak has made a lot of changes in infrastructure, including building a temperature-controlled room around the new line and reconfigured the entire layout of the operation, which has allowed the company to add more pallet positions and become more efficient.

“Now we’re looking at another expansion, which will probably be in early 2026,” Kearney said. “We are going to add a significant amount of more storage capacity, and we’re excited about that.”