The news that nearly four-decade-old River Ranch Fresh Foods will be shutting down next month is symptomatic of pressures every grower-shipper in the Salinas Valley is feeling, agricultural officials said Friday.
In a letter to customers from River Ranch President Ken Adams and Vice President of Sales Peter Hayes, and first reported in The Produce News on Friday, the company said it will cease operations Nov. 8: “The costs today to produce a field-pack carton of lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower continue to escalate in an ever-challenging marketplace,” according to the letter.
An attempt to seek a comment from Adams or Hayes at the company’s Abbot Street headquarters was met with a blunt “we are not commenting” from an unidentified employee Friday. Officials inside the office shut and locked the door on one television cameraman.
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