Del Monte Foods’ closure of its Modesto, Calif., and Hughson, Calif., peach processing facilities sent shockwaves through the industry.
Since then, the USDA has announced up to $9 million in funding for a clingstone peach removal program. The California Farm Bureau estimates this will support the removal of 420,000 clingstone peach trees or about 3,000 acres.
Assessing the Financial Damage After the Dust Settles
Ranjit Davit, chairman of the California Canning Peach Association, says that while the initial shock has worn off and reality has started to set in, the loss of the processing plants still stings.
“It was a major adjustment for growers who have invested a lot of capital and do the trees,” Davit says.
Del Monte Foods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2025 and in January 2026, Pacific Coast Producers purchased Del Monte Foods’ canned food brand assets, but no buyer emerged to purchase the canning portion of the business, which led to its closure.
“No one ever thought Del Monte [Foods] would be exiting the industry,” he says. “There were close to 3,000-plus acres of contracted fruit up and down the state.”
Steven Fenaroli, director of political affairs at the California Farm Bureau Federation, estimates the closure of Del Monte Foods’ facilities equates to about 50,000 tons of clingstone peaches or about $30 million in losses. Fenaroli says other ripple effects include “lost jobs from the haulers to the mechanics who work on the trucks to the gas stations that fuel them.”
The Inflexible Reality of Processing Varieties
Davit says that while a lot of social media posts have discussed what growers could do with the peaches without a destination, he says it’s quite simply a misconception that peach varieties designed to excel in canning would be suited for the fresh market.
Davit says that with the type of acres many growers have, it would be impossible to sell peaches at a local farmers’ market.
“Processing peaches is about 70% labor, from pruning to thinning to harvesting,” he says. “It’s not easy to go say ‘Let’s go sell them at the farmers’ market.’ Maybe if you had five trees. That’s one thing, but when you have 20 to 150 acres, it’s very difficult.”
Fenaroli agrees, noting that when there is no outlet for processing and paying growers for the peaches, they need to look for an alternative.
“The alternative isn’t finding someone else to take them; the alternative is to grow something else,” he says.
Facing a Single-Buyer Market
Much like other commodities, processing peaches have faced significant competition from cheaper imports. Davit says that the canning peach industry has been in decline for a while now.
“This industry over the last 35, 40 years has really been on a downward trend,” he says. “We’ve had so much competition with imports that they were occupying one-third of our markets. We’re all domestic market.”
Davit says that the lack of an export market has also hampered growers. Before the 1980s, processing peaches had a strong export market. But over time, the industry became more domestically focused and then faced steep competition from imports.
Seneca Foods, Del Monte Foods and Pacific Coast Producers were the three processors in business only six or so years ago. With Seneca Foods and now Del Monte Foods closing, Pacific Coast Producers is the only canning peach company.
“Now we’re down to one processor and that processor’s capabilities are down to about 165,000 tons,” Davit says.
The Multi-Year Capital Gap of Orchard Conversion
A big question becomes, where do growers go next? Davit says per California law, growers must remove the trees. From there, growers have to start over and may pursue another commodity such as almonds, pistachios or even walnuts.
Fenaroli says, “I don’t see them wanting to grow peaches after this ordeal.”
He says growers might look more closely at pistachios as Sutton Foods just opened a pistachio processing plant in the Woodland, Calif., area, which is only about a 30- to 40-mile drive from Yuba City, where many peach growers live.
“That may open people’s minds to put a little pistachios in,” he says. “Is that market starting to grow in our area?”
Getting a tree nut orchard into production takes both an investment in the trees and time. It takes a couple of years to get the tree ready for production and then a few years until a grower might recoup the investment in getting the orchard together.
Davit says as to what the industry will do, “Every individual farm is different and has a different characteristic to it.”
Davit says some orchards are multi-generational and some are first-generation growers. Some growers may not have the next generation seeking to take over, while other operations might be concerned about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and water access.
Fenaroli agrees, noting that water is a premium in the area with a growing population. He says that some land that falls under SGMA will make it difficult for growers to plant anything.
“My takeaway is that a lot of hard decisions are going to be made and I don’t envy the farmers one bit,” he says. “Many of whom have done this for multiple generations.”
The Compounding Cost of Doing Business in California
Fenaroli says this Del Monte Foods plant closure is a symptom of a bigger issue of overregulation in California. He pointed to a landmark Cal Poly San Luis Obispo study tracking long-term regulatory impacts that found that the impact of more than 20 new state environmental, labor and groundwater mandates, the per-acre compliance costs skyrocketed 1,366% between 2006 and 2026.
“We see it time after time. We see regulations increase by 1,300% for farmers. The same is true of processors,” he says.
