{"id":217327,"date":"2026-03-13T01:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217327\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T01:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:05:07","slug":"northern-california-peach-growers-concerned-over-del-montes-planned-closure-of-modesto-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217327\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern California peach growers concerned over Del Monte’s planned closure of Modesto plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Del Monte’s planned closure<\/a> of its Modesto fruit cannery next month is raising concerns not just for workers, but for peach growers across Northern California who relied on the facility to process their crops.<\/p>\n

The company says the plant will shut down on April 7, eliminating about 600 full-time jobs and roughly 1,200 seasonal positions.<\/p>\n

For many farmers, the closure also means losing a longtime buyer for cling peaches grown throughout the Central Valley.<\/p>\n

According to the California Canning Peach Association, growers who supply Del Monte typically operate under contracts that can last a decade or more, providing stability for crops that take years to establish.<\/p>\n

But those long-term agreements will no longer be an option once the Modesto plant closes.<\/p>\n

The association says the nearest cannery, Pacific Coast Producers, plans to rely instead on one-year cash contracts to maximize production at its existing facilities.<\/p>\n

Stanislaus County peach farmer Bill Loritelli said he had a contract with Del Monte decades ago, but many growers saw the industry shifting long before the plant announced it would close.<\/p>\n

“The few farmers that I know that still have them, it will definitely impact them, especially several of them have got younger trees,” Loritelli said. “Now they really have a dilemma whether they continue growing them up to maturity with no market or pulling them, and they spend a lot of money on planting them.”<\/p>\n

County agricultural officials say the ripple effects are already being felt beyond Stanislaus County.<\/p>\n

Stanislaus County Agricultural Commissioner Linda Pinfold said growers in Northern California counties such as Yuba and Sutter, where many cling peaches are now grown, are particularly concerned about losing a major processing facility.<\/p>\n

For farmers who planted orchards years ago expecting a buyer at harvest, the closure adds new uncertainty to an already risky business.<\/p>\n

Loritelli said that uncertainty is part of farming, but losing a major processor can make those risks even greater.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Del Monte’s planned closure of its Modesto fruit cannery next month is raising concerns not just for workers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,11159,15563],"class_list":{"0":"post-217327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-farmers","12":"tag-modesto-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}