-September 30,2021-
Fowler-based Bee Sweet Company is underway on construction of a large new 225,000sf mandarin(tangerine) orange processing plant at their expansive Highway 99 citrus packing campus. The City of Fowler has approved a plan to build the new facility on South Ave.Vice president of the company Ben Ladd says the state of the art plant will enable the citrus packer to more efficiently handle farmer’s mandarin citrus crop beginning in 22/23. Ladd says for example, the company expects to eliminate the need for a night shift to keep up with increasing volumes of the tangy flavored fruit varieties that ripen one after another over the winter and spring months. The volume of the kid-favorite citrus being grown in the Central Valley continues to climb each year.
Biggest crop ever
“Last year was the biggest crop ever” states Ladd
Unlike their significant competitors in the mandarin marketplace Bee Sweet tangerines are not marketed with any of those cute brand names other grower/packers use to sell these smaller size, typically seedless, easy-peel fruit.
All citrus variety sales have enjoyed a big boost during the pandemic with their high Vitamin C content the best sales pitch of all.
“We just market under our Bee Sweet brand” explains Ladd, proud they pack notes not just mandarins but 15 different varieties of citrus shipping to retail customers like Walmart.Like their competitors, Bee Sweet has adopted those handy 3 lb netting bags that grocery shoppers are now used to.Bee Sweet Citrus was founded in 1987 as an independent packer and shipper of California oranges.Since then the company handles a growing number of citrus varieties. Now year-round with some S American fruit filling in ,Bee Sweet ships throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and several Pacific Rim countries including Japan.
The new Bee Sweet facility will feature cold storage- high tech washing, sorting and packing lines as well as a large shipping and dock area next to Highway 99. Solar panels already cover the huge multi-building citrus packing complex south of Fresno.
Bee Sweet is in a competitive business with other major players in this arena including Fowler Packing, across the freeway, who market their mandarins under the Peelz name.There is also Kern County-based Sun Pacific who markets under the Cuties brand of clementine variety mandarins.- fruit that first imported from Spain in the 1980s.
Then there is Wonderful Citrus who market Halos out of their 500,000sf facility in Delano. Not to be left behind, Sunkist has several varieties grown by their member growers and packed in the familiar bags under the Gold Nugget and Delite label.
Steady growth
A decade ago mandarin acreage in the Valley was 30,000 acres- up from 23,000 acres in 2007. It now totals about 67,000 acres compared to 46,000 acres in 2013. Most of that is grown in Tulare Kern and Fresno counties.
While mandarin production was up 25% this past year, USDA says navel orange production fell 7%. Indeed, while mandarin acres have more than doubled in the past ten years, navel orange acres in California shrunk from 130,000 acre to 116,000 acres today.
In 2020/21 there were 40 million boxes of navels packed compared to the newer guys on the block – mandarin varieties at 28 million boxes.
Last year was a good one for prices to the grower or most California citrus and all agree there is plenty of room for both that iconic Washington Navel orange and those tangy little mandarins.