The Wonderful Company filed suit against Tulare County in July 2020 over issuance of building permits to longtime grower ARO Pistachios, who had been purchased by the Assemi group looking to expand operations in Terra Bella. Wonderful claimed the county permitted the expansion illegally – alleging they had not followed the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
The Assemis and Resnick have been bitter rivals for years after earlier collaboration turned sour.
Resnick blocked plans for a new Assemi proposed pistachio plant near Five Points in Fresno County back in 2019 thwarting the Assemi family plan to expand processing capacity even as the state’s growers continued to plant new trees.
It was after a successful CEQA lawsuit in Fresno County that the Assemis looked south to Tulare County – purchasing the ARO operation in Terra Bella. They then applied to Tulare County to expand and were granted permits. Resnick then filed what were to be 2 lawsuits against Tulare County fighting the permits for the past 3 years unsuccessfully and failing to stop this plant expansion.
In their defense the Assemis argued Resnick was motivated simply by competitive interest in filing the legal actions
The former ARO Pistachios plant originally had just four storage silos when it was built in 1996. Under Assemis’ Touchstone company, the site now has 20 silos looking to add a total of 36 silos.
Wonderful’s’ lawsuit called the expansion “industrial scale” not mentioning that Wonderful plants are as big or bigger.
The Assemis however, remains stalled on their 2018 plan to build a large 49-silo processing plant near Highway 33 in eastern Fresno County after a series of environmental challenges by Wonderful.
Wonderful is owned by billionaire Stewart Resnick, California’s top farmer in citrus and almonds as well.
The Assemis withdrew their first EIR after losing in Fresno court to Resnick, forcing them to start over. Now in April 2023 a second draft EIR is underway on a new plant proposal near the original west Fresno County site. The draft has been crawling through the process for several years.Now called Kamm Ave Pistachio plant – the facility would be 130,000sf.
Processors need to add capacity and silos in the Valley as growers continue to plant 30,000 acres of new pistachio trees annually, says Bob Klein of the Administrative Committee for Pistachios. This year’s crop is expected to be in a 1.5 billion pound range despite the regional flooding.