The San Joaquin Valley Sun reports the Assemi family, owners of Maricopa Orchards and Touchstone Pistachio Co., will divest its farming operations in California.
The Sun reports the family’s patriarch, Farid Assemi, is in declining health and faces a legal battle among family members over the control of the business.
The sale includes 52,000 acres of pistachios and almonds under Maricopa Orchards, a Touchstone Pistacho processing facility in Terra Bella and one planned for Fresno County.
The processing facility can hull and dry up to 60 million pounds, store 73 million pounds and process 75 million pounds, according on The Sun’s report. The Maricopa Orchard land includes water rights across seven water districts in the Central Valley.
The Sun reports the value of these assets is around $2 billion and that the family will consider sales of the company as a whole as well as assets.
The newspaper said the Assemi family founded Maricopa Orchards in 1989 and added Touchstone Pistachios in 2019 following a departure from The Wonderful Company. The Sun said the Assemi family sued Stewart Resnik, chairperson of The Wonderful Company, for not paying a grower bonus in 2018. A jury awarded the Assemis nearly $39 million in damages and awarded The Wonderful Company about $11.4 million because the family reported did not deliver pistachios in 2019.
The Sun reports that following the verdict, Kevin Assemi, son of Farad Assemi, sued the family. Kevin Assemi served as the former president of Assemi Group and former CEO of Maricopa Orchards. The Sun said the lawsuit stems from Maricopa representatives attempt to secure a $13 million loan with Kevin Assemi’s company to make a $500 million loan payment. Kevin Assemi notified federal bank regulators of possible fraud, according to the report.
