McCarty: About Farmington Fresh

Air Transport Services

Farmington Fresh located at the Stockton Metropolitan Airport represents an important link in the ability of California growers, packers and shippers to improve the logistics of moving their products to increasingly valuable markets accross the country and around the world.

The facilities permit consolidation and staging of larger volumes of perishable products thus enabling dedicated air freighter shipments by charter carriers.

The result is a significant improvement in the handling of these highly perishable products and, the Farmington Fresh group believes, an increase in the overall volume of products being purchased and shipped.

map The facility is located at the Stockton Metropolitan Airport on a 35 acre parcel leased from the County of San Joaquin. The project consists of fruit and vegetable receiving, storage and shipping facilities as well as packing and long-term storage buildings.

Locally grown fruits and vegetables are processed, packed, stored and shipped from the facility to growing consumer markets on the Pacific Rim as well as Mexico, Canada and Europe. Shipments also originate from the facility for California and U.S. markets. Many of the shipments are made by air due to the demand for fresher, "tree-ripened" products from these increasingly important markets.

Additionally, the facility can be utilized as a consolidation point to stage air shipments from growing regions as far away as Washington and Oregon. On return trips, the facility can act as a receiving point and distribution center for agricultural goods, including fresh flowers, arriving by air from the Pacific Rim countries and South America. Dry goods can also be handled.

In the past, local cherries, asparagus, apples, pears and other crops had to be shipped to international destinations from airports in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose and trucked as far away as Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles to obtain cargo space on planes destined for the Pacific Rim. The Stockton facility can now provide shippers with a central location for shipment of perishable crops. Charter cargo flights are the predominant air carriers from the facility.

Farmington Fresh works with shippers from around the world to develop routes and cargo volume. Historically, as much as 80% of all West Coast cherries and 60% of West Coast asparagus were shipped to market by air. The Stockton facility is strategically positioned for this trade to grow.

Farmington Fresh began shipping cargo from the airport in 1996. Additionally, conventional truck and piggy-back rail shipments depart the facility to growing domestic and NAFTA-fueled markets in the north and south as well as important markets opening in Europe under the new GATT accords.

Learn More About:

Farmington Fresh
The Farmington Fresh Air Cargo Facility (Map)
Stockton Metropolitan Airport Facilities Data