Suntreat Packing & Shipping Co. in Lindsay, CA, which was founded by brothers Harry Griffith and John Griffith, has been in the business of growing and packing citrus in California for more than half a century. Recently, the company, which grows several select varieties of specialty citrus in addition to lemons and Navel oranges, introduced the “Suntreat Reserve Citrus” label, which it reserves for its finest and best-tasting fruit.

That is “a program that we have been working on and I think is getting established and starting to be received really well,” said Al Imbimbo, vice president of sales, who is now in his sixth season with the company. He worked previously for Sunkist Inc., Paramount Citrus and River Bend Farms.

For the Navels in its “Suntreat Reserve Citrus” program, Suntreat selects “the very best flavor that we have of our Navels, to assure that the eating quality is really dynamite” and will delight customers and consumers,” he said. “We do that starting in the field, and we bring it through the packinghouse and run it over [equipment with] some new technology to help ensure that all the fruit in that box is some of the best we have ever grown.”

According to the company website, “Reserve Navel oranges are allowed to ripen on the tree until the perfect balance of size, texture and sweetness is achieved. Hand-selected and harvested well above the industry standards, this juicy, sweet fruit is the best-tasting California orange.” Harvested at the peak of maturity, “just the way our citrus growers themselves enjoy them,” it gives to consumers the same kind of fruit “that our growers bring home to their families.” The Reserve Navels are available January through April.

The “Suntreat Reserve Citrus” program also includes Oro Blancos, seedless lemons, Cara Cara oranges and Gold Nugget Mandarins, as well as Suntreat’s Sumo Citrus, an exceptionally large easy-peel Mandarin prized for its excellent flavor.

Suntreat expects a good harvest for 2014-15. The crop “is probably as big as our last year’s beginning estimate,” before that crop was diminished by a freeze in early December of 2013, said Griffith.

Suntreat’s groves fared better in the 2013-14 season than many in the industry. “All of our fruit is in some of the more traditional orange belt areas, so we were less affected by the freeze last year than some others,” Imbimbo said.

A third year of drought and reduced surface water allotments have taken a toll on the crop industry-wide this year, but fortunately for Suntreat, “most of the ranches or groves that we have have decent supplies of water,” he said. Still, some summer rainfall or better water availability for irrigation would have improved fruit size.

Eating quality, however, “is exceptional” this year, due to a hot summer, he added. “Heat units bring sugar.”