DINUBA, CA - With acreage increases, cold storage expansions, cherry line modifications, and repack room projects completed, it is a pivotal time of growth and opportunity for King Fresh Produce LLC. But that is far from all that is happening.
“We are moving forward with the name change of our packing and cooling operation from Jody Fresh Cooling Company to reflect the parent company's name of 'King Fresh Produce LLC,'" President Keith Wilson tells me. “We're a vertically diverse company that farms, packs, precools, stores, procures, consolidates, imports, and markets a wide variety of fresh produce. These diverse operations and services could not run efficiently without a staff of highly talented people with many years of experience and expertise in all phases of our operation; the time is right to align and unite our team of people and business entities together under the same focus and company name.”
The message comes just in time as a wave of additional volume is added to King Fresh’s product lineup of year-round supplies of grapes and seasonal supplies of pomegranates, cherries, berries, kiwi, and citrus. The company is erecting new signs at its facility in Dinuba, California, and looks forward to utilizing the additional space for California-grown pomegranates and imported grapes, citrus, pomegranates, berries, and cherries from Peru, Chile, and Mexico.
“We finished the final stages of expansion just in time for a busy California summer season. We expanded our cherry pack line, refrigerated area for in-house grape packing, as well as upgrading the space and equipment devoted to packing citrus and pomegranates,” Keith explains.
Best known for table grapes from California, it may come as a surprise to some reading this to see how diverse King Fresh’s products and services are. The company also runs an extremely efficient transportation department that provides logistics for fresh produce transported to all 50 states and Canada.
“We’re not just about grapes, and bringing our business under one clear brand helps support and ensure our trading partners in the industry we are one team with the same goals,” Keith reiterates, while also clarifying that the operation is not letting up on its signature grape category either. Not by a longshot. “We more than doubled our volume of great-quality, Mexican-grown table grapes, with large amounts of the best varieties coming in this past May and June."
King Fresh's California season is now underway with increased production on company-owned vineyards producing environmentally friendly, export-quality varieties. For its green grape lineup, it offers Valley Pearl, Ivory, Great Green, Sugar Crisp, Sweet Globe, and Autumn King; and for red grapes, Torch, Krissy, Jacks Salute, Scarlet Royal, Timco, Red Globe, and Allisons. All varieties are available in bi-color and tri-color packs in popular clamshell sizes too.
Clearly, there is much going on for the King Fresh team and plenty to keep an eye out for. As this and other key industry organizations continue to make grand moves, AndNowUKnow will report the latest.
