Fruit Picking Timing Is Critical

The issue of precisely when to pick and ship fruit is a great deal more complicated than it would at first appear. That’s my none-too-brilliant assessment of the issue after attending the annual University of California (UC)-Davis Fruit Ripening & Ethylene Management Workshop, which is hosted by Carlos Crisosto, the faculty director of the course.

Yes, I knew that packers could not ship fruit too high in soluble solids for fear the fruit would turn to mush getting sloshed around in transit. But after hearing numerous consumer complaints about tasteless fruits in the past several years, surely a happy medium could be found? Easier said than done, it turns out.
Marita Cantwell, one of the workshop’s presenters, said the issue of maturity was a “pet peeve,” but one she clearly shared with many others. While the audience of 150 or so at the Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier (near Fresno) listened attentively to most other talks, Cantwell’s topic obviously hit a nerve.

For example, Cantwell asked when people thought a certain fruit could be considered ripe. “Depends on the price of the market,” shouted one man good-naturedly. “When you’re sitting on a 20-dollar market when it’s normally 10 bucks? Whoa!”

That Is The Question

Ah, there’s the crux of the problem. Cantwell, who cares so much about the issue that she actually took a photo of an under-ripe orange on a 2007 United Airlines flight to show the audience, reminded everyone of just how critical it is to satisfy consumers. “It was inedible, it was so sour,” Cantwell said of the orange on the airline tray. “If we don’t do what we know we should do, consumers are going to vote with their feet, and they’re not going to buy.”

Look what‘s happened to stone fruit, she said, and maybe it was me, but many in the audience in the heart of the nation’s stone fruit industry seemed to squirm in their seats. But, responded a few audience members, what if the retailers want the fruit, under-ripe or not, on their shelves? If a retailer wants fruit, some grower will pick. “If he doesn’t pick it,” called out one man, punctuating the discussion, “I will.”

The point is, insisted Cantwell, the fruit business has very serious maturity issues, and growers are shooting themselves in the foot in the long run. Ah, the long run. But in the meantime, there’s the short run to consider. And what if last year wasn’t so great. What if a grower’s got bills stacking up, and stacking up, and stacking up. And what if the grower does have the fruit, and it sure looks pretty, even if it’s so sour it could wipe the smile off the face of a used car salesman?

Jim Thompson, another faculty member who was moderating that afternoon’s session, eloquently summed up just how thorny the problem is with an example, as they say on TV, “ripped from the headlines.”

“We all need to be like the president of Toyota, who said ‘I am deeply sorry for not putting the needs of the consumer first,’” said Thompson. Then he threw a wrench into the works: “The first box of cherries that goes to Japan sells for $100. And it never tastes good.”