Mark Gillette elected Sunkist Chairman

New directors were seated at the annual meeting, which also saw the election of Mark D. Gillette, of Dinuba, CA, to his second year as Chairman. He is president of the Sunkist-affiliated Gillette Citrus Inc., a vertically integrated company that grows, packs and ships fresh citrus. Gillette is a fourth generation citrus grower who produces lemons, mandarins and Navels, Valencia, Moro and Cara Cara oranges in Fresno and Tulare counties. 

Mr. Gillette was also elected to his first term as Chairman of Fruit Growers Supply Company, a packaging and supply subsidiary of Sunkist Growers Inc.

Elected by the board to Vice Chairmanships for 2012 are Nick Bozick of Mecca, CA; Gerald Denni of Strathmore, CA; and James Finch of Ojai, CA.

Bozick is President of Richard Bagdasarian, Inc., a family run multi-commodity produce, growing packing and shipping business in the Coachella Valley. In addition to citrus, the company also handles table grapes and vegetables. He was elected to the Sunkist board of directors from the Riverside-Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange in 2000 and also serves on the board of Fruit Growers Supply Company, a cooperative and manufacturing affiliate of Sunkist. He served as Sunkist’s Chairman of the Board for five years, the maximum consecutive length of service.

Denni, a Sunkist member since 1986, was elected to the Sunkist board in 2007 from the California Citrus Growers Exchange where he serves as Administrator. Denni grows several varieties of oranges including Navels, Valencias, Cara Caras and Bloods in the Lindsay and Strathmore areas. He is General Manager of Golden Valley Citrus in Strathmore and co-owner of Mittman-Denni Citrus Management, which manages over 1,800 acres of California-grown citrus.

Finch was elected to the Sunkist board in 2004 from the Saticoy Fruit Exchange. A third generation citrus producer, he and his family grow lemons, oranges and avocados in Ventura County, California. In addition to his agricultural interests, Finch serves as a Trustee of the Monica Ross School.

New directors seated for the 2012-13 year are Robert C. Davis, III, Ojai, CA, Villa Park Citrus Exchange; Robert B. Grether, Somis, CA, Saticoy Fruit Exchange; Warren C. Lyall, Pauma Valley, CA, Villa Park Citrus Exchange; and Scott A. McIntyre, Temecula, CA, Kaweah-Oxnard Fruit Exchange.

Completing the 29 member board as representatives from California and Arizona exchanges are Caroline Alfheim, Clovis, CA; Craig Armstrong, Thermal, CA; George Bravante, Visalia, CA; Allen Camp, Ventura, CA; William Chaney, Yuma, AZ; Steve Cutting, Manhattan Beach, CA; Donald Dames, Oxnard, CA; Burt Fugate, Santa Maria, CA; Russell Katayama, Orosi, CA; Gary Laux, Porterville, CA; Brad Leichtfuss, Fillmore, CA; Manuel B. Martinez, Redlands, CA; Samuel Mayhew, Oxnard, CA; Thomas Mazzetti, Riverside, CA; Eric Meling, Ivanhoe, CA; Martin Mittman, Porterville, CA; Dick Neece, Porterville, CA; Cecelia Perry, Yuma, AZ; Richard Pidduck, Santa Paula, CA; Kevin Riddle, Orosi, CA; and Randy Veeh, Visalia, CA.

Sunkist Growers is a citrus marketing cooperative, founded in 1893, which is owned by and operated for thousands of family farmers growing citrus in California and Arizona

Sunkist Remains Strong In Its 118th Year As Nation's Leading Citrus Cooperative

Sherman Oaks, California - “For the second consecutive year, Sunkist Growers generated more than $1 billion dollars in overall revenue,” Sunkist President and CEO Russell Hanlin told members as he summarized the 2010-11 operating year at the company’s Sherman Oaks headquarters on March 1. “Your cooperative is in excellent financial shape and is extremely well capitalized with close to $80 million in member equity and virtually no debt.” In other positive news, Hanlin reported grower payments for crops sold at $803 million. This was up $14 million over the previous year, yielding the best results of the past three years. He also noted that citrus juice and oil sales generated $88 million – the best results in more than a decade. Reviewing last year’s results, Hanlin said that the sales team overcame the challenge of moving a 93 million carton Navel orange crop − the largest in history − which delivered a large percentage of smaller sized fruit. To add to the difficulty, heavy rainfall adversely impacted the overall fruit quality. “Despite nature’s handicap, export shipments were some of the highest ever achieved,” he reported. Sales summaries for other citrus varieties showed increases over the previous year for Valencia oranges, lemons and limes, grapefruit, mandarins, tangerines and other specialties. “Sunkist’s role is to create grower value,” Hanlin said, “and we do this is in a variety of ways starting with the value we create with the fruit you grow.” A recent change to Sunkist’s Citrus Juice & Oils business, which processes by-products fruit, is expected to yield positive results, he said. “In 2011, we entered into a joint venture with another processor, Ventura Coastal, in what we believe is a fabulous deal for both companies.” The new 50%/50% joint venture processing company began operating both Sunkist’s Tipton facility and Ventura Coastal’s Visalia facility on February 1, 2012. “The operations of the two plants are extremely complementary,” he added. .

VALENCIA C.A.S.S. ESTIMATE

VALENCIA ORANGE PRODUCTION FORECAST

AT 28 MILLION

The initial 2011-12 Valencia orange forecast is 28 million

cartons. This forecast was based on the results of the 2011-12

Valencia Orange Objective Measurement (O.M.) Survey, which

was conducted from January 13 to February 23, 2012.

Estimated fruit set per tree, fruit diameter, trees per acre,

bearing acreage, and oranges per carton were used in the

statistical models estimating production.

Measurements and weather conditions are indicating a normal

crop year. Cold winter temperatures did not appear to

negatively impact the crop. Survey data indicated an average

fruit set per tree of 611, relatively close to the five-year average

of 591. The average March 1 diameter was 2.583 inches, very

close to the five-year average of 2.585.

SURVEY HISTORY

A Valencia Orange Objective Measurement Survey was

conducted from the 1985-86 to 1993-94 seasons before being

suspended due to a lack of funding. The survey has been

conducted since it was reinstated for the 1999-00 season, with

the exception of the 2006-07 season due to a substantial

freeze. The data from the first three years after the survey was

reinstated were used for research purposes in developing

crop-estimating models.

SURVEY SAMPLE

A sample of 578 Valencia orange groves was randomly

selected proportional to acreage, county, and variety

representation for the state, with 533 of these groves being

utilized in this survey. Once a grove was randomly chosen and

grower permission was granted, two trees were randomly

selected for each grove. For each randomly selected tree, its

trunk was measured along with all connected branches. A

random number table was then used to select a branch, and

then all connected branches from the randomly-selected

branch were measured.

This process was repeated until a branch was reached with no

significant limbs beyond it. This randomly-selected branch,

called the terminal branch, was then closely inspected to count

all fruit connected to it, as well as all of the fruit along the path

from the trunk to the terminal branch. Since each selected

path has a probability of selection associated with it, a

probability-based method was then applied to estimate a fruit

count for the entire tree.

In the last week of the survey period, fruit diameter

measurements were made on the right quadrant of four trees

surrounding the two trees of every third sampled grove. These

measurements were used to estimate an average fruit

diameter per tree. Of the 533 utilized groves, 219 were in

Tulare County, 102 were in Kern County, 53 were in San Diego

County, 57 were in Ventura County, 34 were in Fresno County,

36 were in Riverside County, 13 were in San Bernardino

County, 14 were in Madera County, 2 were in Imperial County,

and 3 were in San Luis Obispo County.

Curious about Orange Production?

The Public Telvision show, Curiosity Quest , has made an episode about orange production and how the fruit gets from the field to the store.  Curiosity Quest is a kid's show where people send in questions on how things get done, and the show is scheduled to show on various PBS and other stations around the country.  Please check out Jay and the host as they explore Gillette Citrus.  The link to the show's website is below.

 http://www.curiosityquest.org/q507.html

Is it Navel time yet

This year's navel crop seems to taking a little longer to mature than last year.  We estimate a start date of around Novemeber 1st to begin picking in Kern County and about a week later in Fresno County.  The picture below is of washington varieties that will not be harvested until January.  We have seen significant growth over the past 6 weeks so we are now anticipating a better size structure than first predicted.