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| Horticultural & Tropical Products Division | Return to the H&TP Home Page |
April 19, 2002
U.S. Canned Fruit Industry Continues to Contract
Signature Fruit, the reorganized Tri-Valley Growers Cooperative, announced closure of its Gridley peach canning facility ”in order for the company to operate more efficiently.“ This summer, Signature will operated only two canneries, employ about 4,000 people and process about 200,000 tons of fruit compared to 1990 when the company operated 10 separate plants, employed 11,000 people, and processed over 1.3 million tons of fruit. The Gridley plant employed about 1,000 workers but only operated for about two weeks and accounted for a small percentage of Signature’s total peach output. Signature will remain the largest of the United States four fruit canners. The other canners, in order of size, are: Del Monte, Pacific Coast Canners, and California Fruit Packing Company. Reasons for the decline of the canning fruit industry are a trend toward off-season consumption of fresh produce, rising costs, and loss of the institutional market to increasing imports from the European Union. In marketing year 1990 U.S. imports from the EU totaled $4.2 million, by 2000 imports totaled $19.6 million.
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