California farmer and food marketer spar over who can sell white nectarines

Thousands of visitors have flocked to Cesar Mora’s farm in central California this week to gather free nectarines.

He’s giving his harvest away rather than watching it rot as he’s locked in a legal battle with a company that claims exclusive rights over the variety of white nectarine he grows. He’s shared more than 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms) since Monday.

“It was really just a thought of not wasting a perfectly good product,” Mora said. “It does make a grower feel good, being able to share my fruit with people and see their immediate reaction that they love it. It’s a little bit of good in this tough situation that I’ve been dealing with.”

The legal dispute highlights the tension that can emerge between farmers and the plant breeders and large industrial food marketers that create new varieties of plants and obtain the exclusive rights to sell them.

Since 2023, the third-generation farmer in the agricultural community of Reedley in California’s Central Valley has been fighting a lawsuit filed against him by Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. The suit centers on the company’s claims of exclusivity over a variety of white nectarine and accusations that Mora broke their contract by selling the fruit to other packers. A trial has been scheduled for later this month.

“At its heart, this is a disagreement involving two written agreements, and it is being resolved the right way — in court and on the facts,” the company said in a statement emailed by one of its attorneys.

Mora has accused the company of unfair and fraudulent business practices.

Fruit patents are becoming more common

The fight centers on a white nectarine variety known as “Monalise,” which has a sweeter, less tart taste.

In its court filings, Giumarra says all rights to the Monalise variety are owned by Star Fruits Diffusion, a French company that works with plant breeding programs, while Giumarra holds the right to sublicense the variety for testing, production and sale. Star Fruits Diffusion did not respond to a request for comment.

Plant breeders, including universities, have long experimented with breeding new crop varieties, and some have become household names. Washington State University developed the Rainier cherry in the 1950s, while the University of Minnesota released the Honeycrisp apple in the 1990s. Both varieties are now in the public domain and can be grown and sold by anyone.

Fruit patents are becoming increasingly common, said Bradley Rickard, professor of food and agricultural economics at Cornell University. A patent allows a breeder to collect a royalty from the fruit trees it sells, the fruit that the trees produce, or both.

In 2010, more than a dozen apple growers sued the University of Minnesota for awarding exclusive rights to its SweeTango apple to an orchard that organized a cooperative of growers to market the variety. A settlement maintained the university’s license agreement with the cooperative while also allowing more Minnesota orchards to lease the trees that bear the apple variety.

The white nectarine battle in California

California’s Central Valley, stretching some 20,000 square miles (51,800 square kilometers), is an agricultural powerhouse that’s estimated to produce 40% of the nation’s fruits, nuts and other table foods, including most of its nectarines.

Court filings show Mora signed a sublicensing agreement with Giumarra in 2017 allowing him to grow and sell the Monalise. He entered a marketing agreement in 2019 requiring the fruit to be packed and sold through Giumarra. He said Giumarra recruited him to grow it.

Under the agreements, Mora was to pay Giumarra a royalty of $2.50 per tree and a 4% production royalty based off the gross sales of the fruit the trees produced, as well as a sales commission.

“They sold me hope and a big dream that I thought I could participate in with them,” he said.

Mora alleges that up to half of the nectarines he provided to Giumarra in 2020 were thrown away, reducing his profits. The company disputes this, and the judge overseeing the case found that the statute of limitations for those claims had passed.

In 2022, Mora alleges the company sold his nectarines to Taiwan in violation of the contract, which states Giumarra will market and sell them in the U.S. and Canada. Giumarra also disputes that claim.

Mora later sought to terminate his relationship with Giumarra, and he sold his nectarines to another fruit packer in 2023. That’s when Giumarra sued him for breach of contract, leading to his inability to sell the fruit at all while the court battle plays out.

Mora’s attorneys say Giumarra has not provided documents regarding its license to the nectarine variety. The company said in court filings the Monalise is not covered by a U.S. plant patent. Mora’s attorneys claim in court filings that “Giumarra promised and represented that the Nectarines were an ‘exclusive variety’ of fruit, and thus Giumarra held patents and related legal rights over these nectarines,” and that because it was exclusive, the fruit “would be sold for top dollar.”

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jon Skiles in May ruled that Giumarra’s breach of contract claim can go forward, saying that the agreement between Giumarra and Mora is valid whether there is a patent for the fruit or not.

“The sublicense agreement does not expressly state that its validity is dependent on the existence or issuance of a patent for the fruit,” he wrote.

He added that Giumarra “does not have to prove the existence of the underlying license agreement in order to prove that it has a valid contract with defendant regarding growing and selling the fruit.”

Legal battles can discourage farmers

Mora said the yearslong litigation has left him feeling frustrated and defenseless. He also grows peaches and plums that are not subject to agreements with Giumarra, but he has lost a quarter of his income by not being able to sell his nectarine crop. Mora says he hopes his case results in more legal protections for growers, while Giumarra says it will let the evidence speak at trial.

“It’s been discouraging to even want to go out and farm,” he said.

On Wednesday, locals wore T-shirts that read “No Nectarines Wasted” as they bagged up the free fruit, with some staying to help Mora serve the large crowds. He’s raised more than $17,000 through a GoFundMe page.

“The only saving grace through all this is being able to share it with the public,” Mora said of his nectarines, “and having everybody enjoy it.”

Claire Rush, The Associated Press