January 2002

Volume 8 / NO. 1

PACIFIC NUT PRODUCERContents

January 2002

At right is John Mundt, owner of Alpine Pacific Nut Co., along with Larry Grossi, of Grossi Fabrication have built a new walnut huller in Hughson. See story page 4.

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Almond Board MeetingSecretary Lyons Speaks Out on Marketing Almonds

New Custom Walnut Sheller in HughsonPayout Often Higher for Growers

Hazelnut Growers’ Summer Tour300 Growers Attend Tour in Yamhill County

Departments 12 Orchard Tasks

30 FYI/classIFIeds

Hazelnut Forecast Up 113%Oregon Production Expected to be 48,000 tons

Advertising(559) 298-6675

Published By Malcolm MediaPacific Nut Producer (ISSN 1087-4674) is published monthly except Aug., Oct. and Dec. by Malcolm Media • Ag Publishing, 441 W. Paul Ave., Clovis, CA 93612 (subscription rate $25 U.S - $75 International).• Periodical postage rates paid at Clovis, Calif. and additional offices. • POSTMASTER: send address changes to Pacific Nut Producer, P.O. Box 626, Clovis, CA 93613-0626.

PUBLISHERDan Malcolm

EDITOR / CO-PUBLISHERPatrick Cavanaugh

ASSOCIATE EDITORDarl Larsen

COPY EDITORMonica Malcolm

PRODUCTION MANAGERMike Lawless

ADVISORY BOARDJeff Olsen

OSU Extension Service

Bob BeedeUC Cooperative Extension

Rick VidgenMac Farms of Hawaii

Photo by Patrick Cananaugh.

PNPPNPPACIFIC NUT PRODUCER

Bee Delivery Reminder for Almond Growers“Bee” on the Lookout for Unwanted Hitchhikers

PNP Expo5th Annual Show in Merced

3Pacific Nut Producer / January 2002

The Authoritative Voice of the Nut Industry

4 Pacific Nut Producer / January 2002

Payout Often Higher for Growers Going This Way

In Hughson, Calif., the mountains meet the ocean at a new walnut shelling operation called Alpine Pacific Nut Co.

John Mundt and his wife Katherine came up with the company name because of their love for the mountains and the Pacific coast. This season marked the first walnut shelling run for Alpine Pacific, an innova-tive operation that shells a grower’s crop and keeps it separate from other growers crop in the plant until it’s ready to be sold. Often times a grower will want to take the crop back and market it themselves giving them total flexibility on what to do with their walnut crop.

Mundt oversees the operation of the sheller and sorting tables while his wife Katherine looks after the inventory and does the accounting. She also works with growers and sets up the sales.

“We’re a custom sheller,” said Mundt. “The grower still owns his product when it comes here, and he maintains owner-ship right up until the time we sell it. The company shells and boxes the nut meats in 22 to 30 pound boxes.”

Growers have their crop hulled and then the huller sends it (or Alpine Pacific picks it up), to Mundt’s operation. “The

grower brings his product in and we charge on the inshell weight. We crack the product and box it and we do all the shipping and handling.

“A grower can actually come in and watch his own product being shelled,” said Mundt. “He can crawl all through the facility if we wants to and watch his crop go through the sheller, color sorter, sorting tables and into the box,” he added.

“When we finish with the grower’s product he knows exactly what he has. It’s not automatically mixed in with other nut meats,” noted Mundt. “We continually give our growers market updates. The

grower knows his own inventory and can make decisions as to selling it at any given time or holding it for a better price. Growers make the sell deci-sion themselves and get paid quicker than normal, especially compared to a co-op,” he said.

Custom shelling is not new to Cen-tral Valley walnut producers. Andersen Nut Co. in Gustine,

Calif. has been custom shelling for 10 years. There, Dan and Brian Andersen operate a facility similar to Mundt’s. In fact, Mundt had his walnuts shelled there for several years before deciding to open his own sheller, not as competition with the Andersens, but as a more convenient facility for Hughson area growers. “It’s simply another opportunity for growers in the Hughson area,” said Mundt.

Mundt said his job is to custom-shell the walnuts and keep all the grower products separate, by variety. “When we finish a grower’s product we pull the bins off and put new bins in for the new grower and separate it all out into lots,” he said.

The market desires the bigger pieces first, such as halves and larger pieces. When a buyer places an order, Alpine Pacific contacts the growers, and only if needed for the sale, would combine the inventory for shipment. “When the grower releases his crop, he knows what the price is and at that time it may be combined with another growers crop to make a full order,” he noted.

Mundt said once the crop is shelled, some growers want their walnut meats back. “Several growers simply have it shelled and then take it back for resale elsewhere, such as a farmer’s market.”

Payout Often Higher for Growers Going This WayBy Patrick Cavanaugh, PNP Editor

The sorting and packing areas of Alpine Pacific put the finishing touches on a grower’s crop.

(continued on page 6)

New Custom Walnut Sheller in Hughson

6 PACIFIC N UT PRODUCER / January 2002

Then we have larger accounts that have their own boxes and liner. These growers supply me with the box and I let them know when it’s full and they will ship it to their customers. “Growers always have complete control of the crop,” he said. “If they are going export and want 25 percent halves and rest large pieces, by variety, that can be easily done.”

“Most of the growers we shell for are hand picked. They are quality growers who want to get a better return on their product,” Mundt said.

On all incoming inshell walnuts, he pulls a DFA sample. “If it’s real rough and tough to work with or too dark, then I tell the grower not to expect a premium,” he said. “They know going in.”

Of the product that is shipped by

export market while the other half stays domestic. “I use about three different brokers to help sell the nut meats. The

have the contacts established and they have worked with the trade and know the contracts. They also follow-up with the shipping.

“We shell 4,200 pounds of inshell per hour and pack about 13,000 pounds in an 8-hour day.

“We have had our walnuts cus-

have gained 5 -12 cent per pound extra,” said Mundt. “That’s why we decided to

do it on our own with our own equipment along with our own label.

“I like working with growers, who understand the market and read up on where the prices are, note Mundt. “They may think the price will go higher and desire to put the crop in cold storage, which we lease in Hughson,” he said “The inventory in cold storage is ready to be shipped anywhere because it has been DFA-inspected. Once the grower decides on price we can ship it imme-diately.”

Mundt said the 2001 crop year was big and it caused some sliding prices. Many growers are holding on to the crop to see what happens. Once the sale is made, most of the money is returned to the grower within 30 days of the shipping date.

Mundt said that he shells his own product from 300 acres of walnuts in the Hughson area. He, along with partners Ron Martella and Dave Hendley farm the walnuts and 200 acres of almonds in the Winton area (Merced County) along with some peaches. Martella also has a walnut huller and drying operation in Hughson, which is used by many of

Mundt said that most of his current customer base wanted to try it out to see what would happen so they gave us 20 to 30 tons. “They want to give it a shot and depending on how well we do they may bring more next season,” he said.

The operation has the latest equip-ment. “We spent a lot of time researching the equipment so that we could be as ef-

a Satake Color Sorter and Larry Grossi with Grossi Fabrication designed and installed all the equipment in the shelling and sorting rooms from the ground up.” Mundt said he worked with Larry based on the quality of his equipment and his desire that the person buying the equip-

helped to install it and made sure every

Grossi had many ideas and while he

designed and installed. “Being able to do it from the ground up and to get all the customer’s ideas and put it together as a complete package was a big goal of mine,” said Grossi. The operation is easily adapted to a larger capacity, just by

.sdaeh rellehs erom owt ro eno ni gnidils

feet long. Currently we are doing 4,200 inshell pounds per hour but we could go 5,500 pounds quite easily. We got the entire system we wanted and it is a very quality-oriented operation with high

per input has exceeded our expectations and our growers have been very happy.”

Grossi. The only thing that Mundt keeps

is the shells, which he sells as bulk. In addition, some meal and the rejects are sold for oil stocks.

“We’re simply another option for growers,” Mundt said.

Larry Grossi installed all the shelling and sorting

A Satake Color Sorter is hard at work

Walnut Sheller(continued from page 4)