Rival California Olive Packer Steps in to Pick Up Canceled Contracts

Just weeks after Bell-Carter ter­mi­nated many of its con­tracts with California olive grow­ers, com­peti­tor and occa­sional col­lab­o­ra­tor, Musco Family Olive Company announced that it would pick up some of these con­tracts.

“We want every farmer impacted by this deci­sion to know that Musco Family Olive Company is com­mit­ted to the California ripe olive indus­try,” Felix Musco, the company’s CEO, said. ​“Our gates are open to pur­chase this year’s crop to meet our increased sup­ply needs from any grower who com­mits to our mod­ern grow­ing and har­vest­ing goals.”

Musco did not spec­ify exactly how many con­tracts would be awarded, but said the com­pany would do its best to take on as many addi­tional ones as pos­si­ble. The com­pany also did not respond to a request for com­ment on this story.

“While pref­er­ence will be given to those grow­ers who com­mit to plant­ing mechan­i­cally har­vestable acreage, we will also offer a one-year con­tract to as many acres as we can to pro­vide every­one with more time to con­sider this oppor­tu­nity,” he said.

Even with new con­tracts being awarded, grow­ers esti­mate at least 31,000 tons of olives will go unhar­vested alone in Tulare County, which is home to many of the affected grow­ers. Industry lead­ers esti­mate this will cost the county $40 mil­lion in lost rev­enue.

Tricia Stever Blattler, the Tulare County Farm Bureau exec­u­tive direc­tor, told Visalia Times Delta that many farm­ers would be finan­cially hurt­ing this year and may have to let their orchards lie fal­low in the com­ing har­vest sea­son.

“The impacts to our local econ­omy will be felt by many, includ­ing the olive grow­ers who have lost their pro­cess­ing con­tracts, and the 1,500 esti­mated farm work­ers who could find their annual income severely impacted by the loss of the har­vest work that is tra­di­tion­ally done in September and October when olive pick­ing occurs,” she said.

Musco Family Olive Company, along with Bell-Carter, filed an anti-dump­ing com­plaint against Spanish table olive pro­duc­ers with the United States International Trade Commission in the sum­mer of 2017. This, com­bined with a sep­a­rate anti-sub­sidy charge from the U.S. Department of Commerce led to the impo­si­tion of tar­iffs on imported Spanish table olives of 37.4 per­cent.

DCoop, along with its Moroccan part­ner Devica, which com­bined are two of the largest table olive exporters to the U.S. responded to the tar­iffs by pur­chas­ing a 20 per­cent stake in Bell-Carter.

This move allowed the com­pany to ship table olives to the U.S. before allow­ing them to oxi­dize. With this step of the process tak­ing place in the U.S., DCoop is able sell its olives in the coun­try tar­iff-free, accord­ing to the cooperative’s pres­i­dent, Antonio Luque. Bell-Carter has denied that this is the case.

As part of the agree­ment, Dcoop and Devica have also now become the near-exclu­sive sup­pli­ers of Bell-Carter’s table olives. However, Tim T. Carter, the CEO of Bell-Carter, said that in spite of this the com­pany would con­tinue to source some olives from California grow­ers.

However, it remains unlikely that many of the olive grow­ers impacted by Bell-Carter’s abrupt con­tract can­cel­la­tions will be able to sell their olives on to Musco.

“I have spo­ken to Musco, and I’m on a list, which I’m grate­ful for, but there’s noth­ing guar­an­teed,” Ud Shanker, a California olive grower who had his con­tract with Bell-Carter ter­mi­nated ear­lier this month, told Olive Oil Times.

“They pre­fer those who har­vest using machines and I’m not one of them,” he added. ​“So, I have to wait and see.”

• Visalia Times Delta