Summertime brings plenty of options with blueberries, grapes, cherries

Organic grapes, berries and even some cherries are becoming increasingly popular summertime favorites.

Organic business is booming at Bakersfield, Calif.-based Anthony Vineyards, said co-owner Bob Bianco.

“We’re getting bigger every year,” he said.

He estimated that up to 60% of the company’s grapes are organically grown.

“We believe in organic and we’re going to keep doing it,” he said.

Kirschenman Enterprises Inc., Arvin, Calif., will have an organic grape program this year for the first time, said Wayde Kirschenman, owner and president.

The company has added 60 acres of flame seedless, ivory seedless and great green varieties in response to an increasing number of requests from retail customers, he said.

Kirschenman also has added full-size organic watermelons to his product line, he said, after offering organic mini watermelons for a number of years.

The company also grows tree fruit but has no plans at this time to offer organic versions.

Berries are a popular organic item.

“We’re actually picking more volume of organic (strawberries) than conventional right now,” Craig Moriyama, director of berry operations for Naturipe Berry Growers, Salinas, Calif., said in mid-April.

That’s because conventional strawberries flowered earlier than the organic fruit and was affected by the rain that hit the state.

Meantime, organic berries flowered after the rains had moved on, which left heavy volume of organic strawberries.

Naturipe should have plenty of organic strawberries all summer in the northern district, he said.

“We have a pretty substantial program here,” Moriyama said, “well over 400 acres.”

Naturipe also grows organic blackberries, a category where Moriyama sees a lot of potential.

The company gave organic raspberries a try but discontinued that program.

“We never could get the cost to work out for us,” Moriyama said.

Well-Pict Inc., Watsonville, Calif., has been in a demand-exceeds-supply situation with its organic strawberry and raspberry programs, said Jim Grabowski, merchandising manager.

The organic category was “hot” in the early 2000s experiencing double-digit growth, he said.

Sales took a dip during the recession, but “since then, they’ve come back and are growing steadily every year.”

Watsonville-based California Giant Berry Farms grows organic strawberries and some organic blueberries, said Cindy Jewell, vice president of marketing.

Although the organic category can be lucrative at times, that’s certainly not a given, she said.

“When you get into those big peaks and you have a lot of fruit on the market, that’s when the price difference is not as great,” she said.

“It’s great for the consumer, but not as great for the grower – they’re not getting that premium.”

The Flavor Tree Fruit Co. LLC, Hanford, Calif., has offered organic cherries since 2011 and has experienced good demand for its limited supply, said Maurice Cameron, president.

The company’s organic Yosemite, Sequoia, Tulare and Rainier cherries continue to gain distribution among mainstream retailers, he said.

“We started off with a lot of organic retailers, but some of the major traditional retailers are the heavy hitters in organic now,” he said.

Growing organically is no easy task, growers say.

“It’s amazing how much more it costs you,” Bianco said.

Controlling pests is a major challenge, he said, so a lot of time, effort and expense go into hand hoeing.

“They’re coming out with organic sprays,” he said, “but they’re expensive, (costing) almost as much as hand hoeing.”

Growing organically is “very complicated,” Cameron added, because of pest pressure and lack of tools to protect the fruit.

Organic cherries typically earn a “slight premium,” he said, but there also are lower yields and the harvest timing is delayed, compared to conventional fruit.

“That’s probably why the category of California organic cherries is not taking off,” Cameron said.

Flavor Tree grows more than half of California’s organic cherries, he said.