Welcome to the News section of our site, This is where you will find the latest news about our Dryers and Member Service Issues.
Update on Energy Situation
By now, most of you have seen or heard the news in regards to the energy crises in this country, and particularly in California. Unfortunately, all of agriculture, from production, to processing, to marketing is very dependent on energy. This makes all of us very vulnerable to swings in energy costs, and large swings in those costs have a dramatic effect on our bottom line. We have been lucky over the last 10-12 years to have ample, economical gas and electrical supplies. That picture has changed radically in the last 8 months due to the prolonged economic growth within the State and the State mandated de-regulation of utility generation and utility rates. There have been a lot of predictions on what the cost of energy will be for the next several years, and none of them sound very good. It is very possible that commercial drying rates next year could be $80-$120 per green ton, or perhaps higher depending on the available supply of natural gas and the cost of electricity. We are actively participating in several groups of dehydrators and processors who are working on behalf of the agricultural industry to ease these higher costs. It is an accepted conclusion that everyone will pay higher utility costs in the future, but agriculture will have a much larger increase because of the proportion of the State's energy demand that is used by agriculture. As winter fades away, the energy picture should become clearer and we will report to you any information that we have in order to keep our membership informed.
New Variety- Sutter
One of the newest varieties of prune plums has been released to nurseries and is now being planted in limited acres in California. This new variety, called the Sutter, was developed by the University of California plant-breeding program at the Kearny Ag station in Parlier, California. It has been proven to have some very positive attributes including larger size, higher brix levels, better dryaway, 7-10 days earlier harvest timing and is more free stone than regular French prunes. Many years of research and trial go into developing a new variety and most never make it into production agriculture for various reasons. Over the past twenty years, thousands of varieties have been developed with only a handful ever becoming an economically commercial variety.
On most occasions, new varieties fail due to cultural problems, slow growth, lack of production, excessive cracks and splits, etc. There are some varieties that have exhibited all the positive cultural traits, but failed when it came time for processing. All varieties must have the potential to be efficiently pitted and handled as regular French is currently handled without lower pitting yields, skin damage, slabbing or other quality issues.
There have been initial processing tests done on the Sutter variety, but due to the small amount of dried product produced to date, the results are only preliminary indicators. So far, those results look positive, but it will be some time before prune processors are willing to wholeheartedly endorse the Sutter as a variety that will be as good as, or better than the regular French prune. The processing component of varietal development is critical to the long-term viability of marketing any variety of dried fruit.
