If you still spot Central Valley California blood oranges in the store, they're probably one of the only few left. Kings River Packing, a grower, packer, shipper of citrus that includes blood oranges, started their season around the end of December and harvested until February on its moro variety. In March, taracco and sanguanali were harvested and sold on contracts. “We finished our blood oranges earlier in March – demand was really good out of the gate,” said Jesse Silva. “It seemed like a good quality year.” Recipients of the fruit included retail, wholesalers, foodservice throughout US and Canada; some were exported to Japan and Korea.
Rain didn't affect good packouts
Silva was happy with the growing conditions, weather and all. “We were delayed a bit with some abundant rainfall early on. That kind of controlled the harvest a little bit, but we needed the rain.” He was also pleased with the prices growers were earning. “(They got) good packouts and were able to move through the fruit pretty well.” The company also runs a year-round lemon program and when Kings River’s crops stop, lemons as well as navels will be imported from Chile.
Specialty citrus gaining popularity
Specialty citrus is garnering more prominence and growing in popularity, people appreciate its aroma and red raspberry flavor, and undertone. “It’s been a nice growth pattern,” said Silva. “It used to be pretty hard to sell blood oranges and cara caras and some of the items that were fairly new to the citrus world. Now it seems like people want variety, they want to know what it is (they’re using) and are using a lot of the fruit for cooking, garnishes, even natural food coloring.”
More varieties starting; golden nugget is new
Silva said they’re into the back half of the season now, getting ready to harvest late summer navels from early spring to late summer and valencias starting in April, carrying through to August. “We’re working through the tangos, murcotts, mandarins and also starting to harvest golden nugget mandarins.” The nugget is new to the program, something Silva said Kings River has been able to build on within the industry. “We’ve been able to obtain more growers and are continuing to expand our orange program and see more demand. We’ve been able to partner with a lot of retailers to grow their citrus category.”
For more information:
Jesse Silva
Kings River Packing
Tel: 559-787-2056