Douglas Fruit and Goose Ridge partner to bring more fruit to Stemilt

Longtime fruit grower Goose Ridge says it will bring new acreage of apples to Douglas Fruit to be packed and marketed under the Stemilt World Famous Fruit brand, according to a news release.

Family-owner of Douglas Fruit David Douglas and Goose Ridge family-owner and President Bill Monson say the partnership will be an equal benefit to their family-owned businesses and the Wenatchee, Wash.-based Stemilt.  

“The Douglas and Monson families have known each other and been friends for 50 years,” Douglas said in the release. “We share the same philosophies and goals as it pertains to our respective family farming operations and are conveniently located near one another in the Tri Cities area of Washington state.”

Both Douglas and Monson families are well regarded for their high-quality fruit and modern growing techniques, the release said. The proximity of Goose Ridge orchards and Douglas Fruit storing and packing facilities align with their joint goals of freshness and fruit quality, according to the release.

“We saw Goose Ridge as a great fit for us in terms of proximity, varietal mix, quality and timing,” Douglas said. “The Monson farms are in the Columbia Basin within 15 miles of the warehouse. The varietal mix, the quality and the volume align with our capacities and the desired manifest for Stemilt to market.”

Goose Ridge will bring 860 acres of apples and approximately 50,000 bins to Douglas Fruit for the 2023 crop year. Once orchards are in full production, they aim to bring 75,000 bins of conventional honeycrisp, granny smith, gala, fuji, Cosmic Crisp and Pink Lady apples to Douglas Fruit, the release said. Furthermore, this growth enhances Stemilt’s inventory efficiencies, freshness and massive scale, of more than 15 million boxes of apples, with only three points of distribution: Hansen Fruit in Yakima, Wash.; Douglas Fruit in Pasco, Wash.; and Stemilt in Wenatchee.          

“We’re really excited to be working with the Douglas and Mathison families,” Monson said in the release. “Bill Douglas fed cattle with Arvid Monson in the '80s when they were operating a feedlot in Sunnyside. We’ve been working on this project to partner with them now for the last four years. We all have a lot in common in the way we do business. We believe in family-owned and the commitment to delighting consumers with flavor and freshness; that’s a big part of us partnering with Douglas Fruit and Stemilt.”