Tulare County Ag Industries Expanding
Investment is not falling far from the tree,literally – as food and ag companies in Tulare County are in expansion mode updating processing, adding value to local crops like milk,nuts, oranges and even ag waste. Here’s a roundup of recent and pending farm-industry expansion around the nation’s number 2 ag production county.
Colony Energy Partners – TULARE: LA-based company is building a $25 million biogas digester starting by midyear 2013 say partner Matt Schmitt, taking organic wastes from farms and food processors nearby and turning the waste into biogas. The liquids – from cow manure for example – will be discharged in the city wastewater treatment plant next door. The low carbon natural gas will be injected in the SoCal Gas pipeline where it will be bought by power companies or sold to make liquid natural gas for transport.Contracts are in place. The organic waste to biogas would replace 5,000 gallons per day of diesel fuel. Operational by mid 2014 the state’s power industry is expected to be a big customer required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Food comapies are under a madate to reduce global warming emissions as well and may be both suppliers of waste and customers for the biogas.
More: Pixley Biogas and Harvest Power of Tulare are building new projects,each in the permitting stage.
TOL Inc – TULARE: Tree topper machine saves labor costs on more Valley trees. Israel-based company has expanded the market for its tree topping and hedging machines that now clip not just citrus but tree fruit and nut orchards, the later having grown in recent years to 1.5 million acres. Plant manager Scott Harmon says the firm came to Tulare in 1980 and is the parts distribution center for the company in the US. TOL Inc has 12 employees and is constructing a new 14,400sf warehouse to have more office and shop space in their current building at 955 R Levin. A hearing on the plan is scheduled.
CaliCheese Co -TULARE: Plans for a 220 job cheese plant are moving forward. The Tulare City Council approved the sale of 59 plus acres in January to CaliCheese Company LLC, to build a 300,000 sf cheese plant on city-owned land next to the wastewater treatment plant.
The deal calls for just over $2 million for the land with the money changing hands between June 30, 2013 and the end of the year.
According to the company’s business plan the start-up cheese plant will to employ 220 producing both cheddar cheese and whey protein -both big sellers in the export market in Asia. They put the value of the project at $250 million and say it would produce 4 million lbs of milk a day to start. Tulare is already home to many of the worlds’ largest diary product producers and the largest cluster of dairy firms in the US West.
If you have not thought of the wastewater treatment plant as a big draw for new companies coming to Tulare – think again. Five firms are building or planning to build nearby.
Ventura Coastal – VISALIA/TIPTON: Recently completed expansion projects at their site north of Visalia include a warehouse, state of the art packaging room and the addition of high tech blending equipment for the production of premium blended juice products. This has allowed the company to expand into the specialty citrus juice (i.e., low pulp and clarified juice) and citrus puree product markets.Right now they are constructing a 20,000sq. ft. freezer in Visalia to support the expansion of their drummed and pail packaged juice and specialty products business.
At Ventura Coastal/Sunkist operations in Tipton, the company says it is making significant investments in its production capabilities of premium” not from concentrate” ( NFC) juice products in the super-premium category. Additional Tipton expansion is planned in citrus oil processing, warehousing and shipping capabilities.
As a result – some job growth is expected. Bill Borgers, President/CEO stated that “the growth and asset investment at our Visalia and Tipton Operations is part of Ventura Coastal’s ongoing commitment to remaining a premier producer, packager and marketer of premium citrus products while delivering value to our grower partners”.
More Citrus: Vita-Pakt Citrus Products has purchased juice maker CCPI In Lindsay and is building a new juice plant now in Tulare.
Global Milk Specialties – VISALIA: Company will employ 60 in Visalia according to their website. The company has co-located in the Provisions Foods dairy plant on Divisidero In Visalia, the former Kraft plant. Provisions makes mostly cultured dairy products. Milk Specialties Global manufactures nutritional ingredients for the health and wellness industry, with certified manufacturing facilities in WI, MN, NE, IL and now UT, and CA as of January. The core of MSG’s business is in value-added dairy ingredients including whey protein isolate, concentrate, and hydrolysate, as well as milk protein, micellar casein, and lactose. MSG also manufactures products which support animal nutrition including milk replacer and energy booster supplements.
Setton Nut Co – TERRA BELLA: Company will build a 4 story vertical processing plant this year This year’s pistachio crop is selling fast with year-to-date shipments versus the same period last year up 20 percent. A larger volume of the popular nut is expected in coming years, pushing processors like Terra Bella’s Setton Nuts to plan how to handle bumper crop of pistachios coming off thousands of acres of new trees. Lee Cohen, CEO of Setton Nuts, says the company is designing a new four-story nut processing plant with state-of-the-art engineering. The plant will be unique in the industry, using “gravity as our friend,” he says. The plant should be in place for this fall’s crop year.
The second-largest pistachio nut processor after Paramount, Setton has already added a huge volume of storage tanks this past fall and plans several other additions.
More: Nichols Farms near Corcoran is expanding their pistachio plant capacity
M&A Foods – PIXLEY: Start-up pomegranate processor has big plans for a processing facility in Tulare County, is under construction and expected to open by the end of February at 220 South Main Street in Pixley. M&A Foods – based in Mountain View Ca, will employ around 20 to start says founder Dr. Aamir A. Farooqui.
The new company will pack high quality pomegranates for the fresh market, ready-to-eat naturally fresh arils – the pulp, make pomegranate gourmet jam, jelly, syrup, and preserves and produce fresh salad pack for fresh market. The jams and jellys are expected to provide” 35-40% revenue of M&A Foods.”
Dr Farooqui says “marketing of pomegranate arils in a way that makes them easy to eat is a way to promote consumption of the fruit. Currently, there are only two competitors – POM Wonderful and Young’s Town, both, unable to meet the market demands,” he believes.
M&A Foods plans to first extract the Arils by hand and once they have enough orders, plan to purchase automatic deseeding plant from Israel. Farooqui, a UC Davis computer scientist and inventor by training – plans a 100,000 sf facility eventually. He has pomegranate trees in the Alpaugh area.
There are about 4500 acres of pomegranates in Tulare County and some 30,000 acres Valleywide. In 1980 there were only 2500 acres before the health benefits of the ancient fruit were widely known.
Solar Investment
Strathmore’s Villa Park orange packing house along Hwy 65 is installing a 5 acre solar farm next door that is expected to cover 80% of the power needs for the big Sunkist packing house and cold storage says manager Jammie Logan.The $3.2 million system is going on line at the end of February.
Add Tipton’s Pitigliano Farms to the local ag enterprises taking advantage of solar technology to cut their costs. Mike Pitigliano says a solar farm is being built on their ranch by March that promises to cut 85% of their current electricity costs for some of their ranches. The permit is valued at near $500,000 with the units being put in by Korea-based Hanwha Solar.