A $4 million renovation and expansion of Lane Southern Orchards’ existing packinghouse in Fort Valley, GA, is under way and planned to be complete for an early summer peach harvest. The expansion will double the capacity of the current packinghouse from 1.5 million to 3 million cases — or 23,000 25-pound boxes per day — in preparation for the 2019 peach season.
The expansion of the Lane Southern Orchards packinghouse also includes significant upgrades in technology with regard to grading and sorting. Part of the multi-million dollar investment includes an expanded and improved cold chain within the facility, an upgraded high-efficiency sorting technology system, enhanced LED lighting and new efficient shipping and receiving facilities. Georgia-based Durand-Wayland is also outfitting a customized gentle robotic bin handling system to streamline efficiencies in the new packinghouse.
“Since joining International Farming Corporation’s family of companies in 2015, they have been a great partner for us in building upon the 100-plus year history of Lane. They understand the culture of farming and have given us the opportunity for tremendous growth. The ability to enhance our facilities to create best in class efficiencies and quality control is the latest example of that growth,” said Mark Sanchez, chief executive officer of Lane Southern Orchards.
The merger of Lane Southern Orchards and Taylor Orchards last year resulted in combined acreage, facilities and innovation, making this powerhouse team one of the largest combined peach and pecan operations in the United States. With the surge of new plantings in 2018 and 2019, the overall total acreage of the company now encompasses more than 10,000 acres of peaches and pecans, all under the direction of the company’s president of farming operations, Jeff Wainwright.
In addition to the farming operations, Duke Lane III, partner in Genuine Georgia and director of sales for Lane Southern Orchards, said, “The complete renovation of the original Lane facility with new technology allows us to easily handle the additional supply of peaches and be a better supplier to our existing customers while we expand our customer base.”
In further explaining Lane’s competitive advantage, Lane said, “Modernization makes consistency and supply more streamlined; however, every piece of fruit in a Lane Southern Orchards box is still hand-picked and hand-packed and flavor will always be goal number one for our customers.”
