500 tons of apricots at risk of going to waste
A family-owned farm in Patterson is asking for help after a deal for their summer fruit went sour.
By Anahita Jafary
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PATTERSON, California (KCRA) — A family-owned farm in Patterson is asking for help after a deal for their summer fruit went sour.
Fantozzi Farms, a farm that has been passed down for generations, was left with thousands of unpurchased apricots.
For the past 4 years, the farm has had the same verbal agreement to sell its crop to a large buyer.
This time, things did not go as planned.
The owners say right before harvest, the buyer did not show up, and when they called the company, they found that part of the company had been sold, and they no longer wanted the product.
Now, Fantozzi Farms needs to sell 500 tons of apricots, which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some people in the community are spreading the word and coming out to help the local business.
Christine Eleria-Fairfax came to the farm’s u-pick with her kids and their friend.
“Now they’re stuck with all these apricots and they need 30,000 people to buy boxes of apricots,” she said. “It’s here and it’s getting wasted and they’re losing out on a lot of business.”
This is becoming a large waste of fruit and also a huge financial burden on the business, with long-term consequences.
“It’s pretty devastating actually. The financial loss, as well as the trees, are suffering at this point,” said Denise Fantozzi, co-owner of Fantozzi Farms. “If you walk through the orchard, you’ll see that a lot of the limbs have already begun to break or have broken under the weight of the apricots, because they should have been harvested a couple of weeks ago in some spots and so it’s also going to take probably, several years for the orchard, the trees themselves to recover.”
The business has started a u-pick for the community, open from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. seven days a week, to sell off some of the crop to as many people as possible.
The farm is located at 1825 Walnut Avenue in Patterson for those interested in stocking up on apricots.
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