How the California Prune Board is Powering Efforts to Sustain the Premium Prune Category 

The California Prune Board’s efforts to ensure the sustainability of the premium prune category continue at pace, with the needs of global trade and consumers at the core. As the world’s leading provider of high-quality prunes, the California Prune industry adds value for customers with the taste, size, and consistency of its product and a reliable year-round supply, underpinned by unsurpassed agricultural and food safety standards.

The California Prune Board (CPB), which represents 400 growers and 26 handlers across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, has highlighted the work underway to ensure California Prunes continue to add value for food importers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers for generations to come. 

Ongoing investment into the world’s only prune-specific breeding programme: A varietals partnership with leading research university, UC Davis, has seen the CPB invest more than $2.5 million to date. The ambitious breeding roadmap – the only one in the world – continues to bear fruit for the trade and global consumers, with enhancements in prune size, sweetness, and quality. Meanwhile, developments in varieties that reduce the risk of disease, improve consistent year-to-year production, and cut drying times are already benefiting California Prune growers, as part of the industry’s efforts to futureproof the orchards and ensure continued availability of high-quality prunes. Further varieties that deliver a lengthened bloom time to reduce the risk of weather-related bloom issues and allow for flexibility in harvest are also emerging while the UC Yolo Gold variety has been announced as the first patented prune, having demonstrated consistent bearing, quality, and flavour. 

Production research designed to sustain the future of the orchards:  As a key strategic element of CPB’s work to sustain the California Prune industry, the Board’s remit is flexible and dynamic enough to meet immediate concerns and expected longer-term challenges.  Ongoing production research into fundamental areas such as disease management and rootstock evaluation are matched with a focus on innovation in areas like drying techniques and tree pruning, to further improve the size, quality, and efficiency of California Prune output, while ongoing research into fruit thinning utilising imaging software and precision techniques is opening up opportunities for a more efficient harvest. Meanwhile, other drivers include maintaining consistency in production, mitigating costs, protecting worker safety, and continuing to embed environmentally friendly initiatives across the orchards. 

Technology and tradition combine for orchard excellence: Growing prunes that continue to delight consumers worldwide is an industry-wide effort, blending heritage agricultural methods with technology and innovation. As the only prune origin to 100 percent tunnel dry its prunes, thereby ensuring consistency in product, the CPB is expanding its focus on drying techniques to encapsulate new effective and efficient technology. The CPB’s Life Cycle Assessment enables the industry to continue to improve how prunes are grown, dried, and delivered while efforts to protect California’s unique ecosystem are seeing growers continuing to innovate in areas such as water irrigation, renewable energy, and Integrated Pest Management.

Esther Ritson-Elliott, Director of International Marketing and Communications, CPB, concludes: “California Prune growers and packers continue to seek ways to improve yield and quality in support of domestic and global demand for our high-quality, nutritious, and versatile prunes.  By investing in production research and partnering with key stakeholders like UC Davis, we can find solutions ahead of potential challenges, from weather-related issues to the cost and availability of labour. 

“Such investment into pioneering production research and varietal programmes benefits global trade buyers and consumers by enabling us to continue to deliver a stable supply of premium prunes worldwide while sustaining the future of our industry.”

To find out more about working with California Prunes, visit www.californiaprunes.net

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA PRUNE BOARD

The California Prune Board was established in 1980 to represent growers and handlers under the authority of the California Secretary of Food and Agriculture. California is the world’s largest producer of premium prunes with orchards across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Promoting a lifetime of wellness through the enjoyment of California Prunes, the organization leads the premium prune category with generations of craftsmanship supported by California’s leading food safety and sustainability standards. California Prunes. Prunes. For life.