From the start of the summer fruit season to the finish, Homegrown Organic Farms in Porterville, CA, markets a full line of organic products in the various stone fruit categories, including several new varieties, “as we continue, as a company, to offer a full-service [program of] year-round offerings of organic fruit to customers,” said Stephen Paul, sales manager for stone fruit, specialty fruit and grapes.

Those summer fruit programs are followed by an expanding program of fall fruit.

The Reedley, CA, division of Giumarra Bros. Fruit Co. Inc., commonly called Giumarra Reedley, specializes in stone fruit, and this summer, the company is promoting its plums through a program called “Easy as Pie.”

According to a company press release, the promotion features plums packed in “Nature’s Partner”-branded two-pound zip closure pouch bags, which have a peel-off recipe label and a QR code linking to a YouTube cooking video.

“Our tree fruit program has been modeled to have it strong on the front end,” said Justin Bedwell, managing partner at Bari Produce LLC in Madera, CA. The focus is on apricots and on early-season plums, nectarines and peaches. “A lot of our volume is in apricots.”

Valhalla Sales & Marketing Inc. in Kingsburg, CA, is a grower, shipper and packer of a wide assortment of fruit, including stone fruit. In the stone fruit category, the company’s production is heavy in apricots and plums, according to David Stone, president and chief executive officer.

“I’m not heavy” in peaches and nectarines, he said. “We have some” throughout the season, “but that is not one of the major factors of our company.”

This year, as every year, Family Tree Farms in Reedley, CA, has introduced several new varieties of stone fruit to the market that have come out of the company’s research and development facility, where the focus is on flavor, according to Dave Goforth, marketing director of Family Tree Farms Marketing LLC.

The new introductions for 2014 include five or six varieties of white flesh peaches and nectarines and three new varieties of plumcots.

RJO Produce Marketing Inc., a fruit broker in Fresno, CA, services customers in three primary areas, according to Clint Lucas, who does sales and inspection for the company. Those areas are category managing, buying and inspection. “We continue to do what the customer needs and asks of us,” he said.

According to the company’s website, RJO is “unlike the traditional agriculture commodity broker. We offer a wide variety of services to help our clients work smart and maximize their profitability.”