California Peach Tree Removal: 420,000 Trees Face Destruction
California farmers are weighing california peach tree removal across about 3,000 acres, or about 420,000 clingstone peach trees, after Del Monte closed its canneries and ended long-term supply contracts. The change leaves growers deciding whether to clear orchards that took years to build and may now no longer have a buyer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved $9 million in federal aid to help farmers remove the trees. Shannon Douglass, president of the California Farm Bureau, said the aid "offers a glimmer of hope after a devastating period, ensuring California farmers can transition to new crops and stay on their land".
Del Monte Closures In Modesto
Del Monte Foods closed its canneries earlier in 2025, then shut the Modesto and Hughson plants last month. The Modesto plant processed between 30% and 35% of California’s cling peaches, according to the facts provided here, and Del Monte’s bankruptcy court filings said state peach farmers had long-term contracts to supply fruit to the company.
Del Monte filed for bankruptcy in July 2025. Its lost contracts with California peach farmers are worth more than $550 million, leaving growers with orchards tied to a buyer that no longer operates the facilities that handled much of the crop.
California Lawmakers Pressed Rollins
More than 40 California lawmakers wrote to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in March asking for financial aid for peach farmers. California Sen. Adam Schiff said removing 50,000 tons of peaches from production could save farmers about $30 million in projected losses.
Tony and Laura McGrath, Yuba County farmers, had 40 acres of peach trees, including 12 acres of Andross peaches under contract with Del Monte for another decade. Their situation shows the immediate question for growers now: whether to keep trees that still have years left in the ground, or cut them down and use the federal aid to shift into other crops.
Yuba County Orchards
Clingstone peach trees can live for 20-year lifespans, so removing them is not a routine crop decision. For farmers with orchards built around Del Monte contracts, the federal aid offers help with the cost of clearing land, but the bigger change is the loss of the market those trees were planted to serve.
What happens next depends on how many growers decide that the aid and a crop switch can replace a buyer that once processed a third of the state’s cling peaches. For growers still holding orchards under contract, the choice is no longer about this season’s harvest; it is about whether the land stays in peaches at all.
