Last pear packerSTANDING

摘要

Naumes, Inc., responds to challenges and keeps its Medford packing house viable. Decades ago, there were nearly 30 commercial pear packing companies in Med-ford, Oregon. The number dwindled to nine in the 1990s, and down to three, plus a few small grower-packers, in the mid-2000s. Today, there's only one commercial packer left, not counting the Harry and David fruit mail order company."We're essentially the last man standing, the last commercial packer in Medford," said Mike Naumes, president of Naumes, Inc. Naumes is a family-owned grower-packer, with tree fruit acreage in three states and another packing facility in California. About a quarter of the fruit packed by Naumes at the Medford headquarters comes from outside growers, several of whom use their own boxes and labels.