A great new opportunity for prunes: Indians just do not know what prunes are

A great new opportunity for prunes: Indians just do not know what prunes are

It’s not only almonds at the almond conference. Many growers and traders from other industries attend the show to learn about consumption trends - and meet potential clients. Jaswant Bains, owner of Sacramento Packing and Valley View Foods, a prune and walnut grower claims that the California prune industry should do more to promote the health aspects of their products and develop developing markets like India.

Sacramento Packing primarily handles prunes, while Valley View Food brand produces prune juice concentrate. The company also packs in shell and shelled walnuts. Currently Sacramento Packing is installing a new shelling plant which will be operational by January 2018. Axel Breuer talked to Jaswant Bains.

Please tell me how your family became a prune producer in the United States.

My grandfather immigrated to this country in 1924. The whole journey took him four

years and he came illegally through Mexico. My father came in 1948 and I came in 1962. So I am the third generation in the company though I was born in India in a family, which has been in the farming business for thousands of years. I am Sikh and Sikh first arrived here at the turn-of-the-century. Most of them came through Canada. A lot of them worked on the railroads and the sawmills. When the people came to California most of them worked as a farm labor. My family started working here in the peach canning business. We grew peaches and sold them to the canneries. In this business we were later replaced by cheap Chinese and Greek imports.

The world market has become more competitive in recent years. How do California Prunes deal with the situation?

Prune production has decreased in the last years - most of the production for world markets has moved to the southern hemisphere - Chile and Argentina. The prunes are cheaper because labor is less expensive and the prunes are sun-dried. The quality is not the same because all the prunes from California are tunnel-dried, they never touch the ground. The moisture, texture and taste is pretty consistent with 18-21% moisture. The moisture for sun-dried prunes can vary from 14-26%.

Where will the growth in the dried fruit market come from in the future? What are your next target markets?

At the moment I see growth everywhere. I attended the session about India at the almond conference. India is currently the fastest growing economy in the world populated by 1.2 billion. I was surprised by the literacy rate which is expected to rise to 80% in the next 5 to 10 years. The population is very young. I think there are lots of opportunities. I also think there are lots of opportunities all over Asia. As the people enter the middle class the consumption patterns change. Many people know want to cut

down on sugar and fat. Prunes and walnuts are perfectly positioned for increased health consciousness. But to be successful in India we have to get the medical community involved. And in India people do not even know what prunes are. Almonds have been known for centuries, walnuts as well. So we have to communicate to the Indian population what prunes are. I think it can be done. In the beginning of the 1980’s nobody knew what prunes were in Japan. And at one time the market in Japan was worth 25,000- 30,000 t. I generally see great opportunities in places where people mainly eat rice.

Which are the major issues for prune production for the next years?

Conserving water is a big issue - in California and throughout the world. One of our

customers is the Nestlé baby food division. We have to comply to very strict guidelines. We even test the water on a regular basis. We used to detect residues in parts per million, but now we have the technology to test for parts per billion. The demands for traceability will rise as customer wants to know where his food is coming from. We plainly have to make sure that we address all those requirements and the need for precise information. For the future I expect a lot of automatization. The minimum wage in California will go up to US$15 in the next four years. That will force all the companies to innovate. The mowing machines will most probably be robots and the harvesting machines will be self-driving.

The almond industry has done a great job in industry and consumer communication to develop new markets. How is the situation for California Prunes?

Prunes have so many beneficial aspects for your health, for bones and digestion. I think our industry has not done enough to communicate these beneficial aspects. I think we need to focus on the good aspects of prunes - and the big difference between California prunes and prunes from other origins. The consumer does not know the difference between sun-dried prunes and

tunnel-dried prunes - and the health and safety issues that come along. I do not think that these messages have been communicated correctly. And I do not think that we need bigger budgets for this, I just think it needs to be done just correctly. I will personally take on some projects in India because that is my home country but I am positive we can achieve a lot there. I met some potential clients at the Almond Conference. I will design some packaging for them and send a trial shipment. It will not happen overnight but it is very promising for the future. It is not easy to develop new markets but I see great opportunities.