This year marks Stemilt Growers' 30th year of growing organic apples, pears, cherries and summer fruit.
“Back in 1989, Tom Mathison and Kyle Mathison recognized a distrust between the consumer and the food they were purchasing,” said Roger Pepperl, Stemilt marketing director. “Tom not only saw a problem with this but knew it had to be fixed. He realized the power of organics and the market was about to brink onto something big. Stemilt needed to be the first to get on board.”
To address consumer’s concerns, Tom Mathison wanted to provide answers to questions like where food was grown, how it was grown and who was growing it. He felt that growing organics could help answer these questions while making a positive step towards regaining the customer’s trust. This move in Mathison’s playbook led to Stemilt’s mission of total transparency with the customer and built a trust that now leaves the customer with an ever-lasting memory of delight.
When Tom Mathison first began growing organics, he laid out the foundation for classic apple varieties, like Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Granny Smith. Today, Mathison’s grandsons, West and Tate Mathison, have built off their grandfather’s organic foundation and have evolved Stemilt’s organic brand, Artisan Organics, into a program that grows and delivers high-quality, flavorful organic varieties that today’s consumer seeks.
“Modern varieties like Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Pinata, Rave and SweeTango are now all available organically, thanks to West (Mathison) and Tate’s (Mathison) innovative mindset,” said Pepperl. “These varieties are extremely popular conventionally, so we knew they would go far with the organic consumer as well.”
With just a few months remaining in the organic apple season, Stemilt suggests retailers capitalize now to finish the category strong. According to March 2019 retail scan data from Nielsen, organics made up 9 percent of total apple volumes sold on average in the U.S. with a $2.19 average retail price per pound. Continuing that momentum into the early summer is ideal, says Pepperl, and retailers can look to organic Fuji and Gala to lead the way, along with smaller sizes of organic Pink Lady apples.
“Retailers should push for sales these last few months,” said Pepperl. “The fruit has impeccable quality thanks to our field team’s experience and consumer demand for organics is there.”
Stemilt’s field teams have worked hard for the last 30 years giving them first-hand experience with Washington state conditions and how organics grow. Washington state has some of the best organic growing climates thanks to the dry, arid conditions. Specifically, Artisan Organics summer fruit has great success in the south eastern Washington region due to the desert like conditions and nutrient rich soil.
“Our all-organic peach and nectarine program is hard to compete with,” said Pepperl. “This region’s conditions are unlike any other in the country. The hot temperatures mixed with the cool nights and abundance of fresh water make it the perfect area to grow summer fruit. The climate and our horticulture expertise lead to beautifully colored and extremely juicy peaches, nectarines and apricots.”
