West Coast Nut September 2019

Grower Profile:
Vanella Farms
By JENNY HOLTERMANN | Contributing Writer
Ryan, Sue, Bob and Robert. All photos courtesy of Jenny Holtermann.
IN 1968, BOB VANELLA BOUGHT TEN ACRES IN
Chico, California. His son, Ryan Vanella recalls the story of
when Bob came to look at the property with a house and
a huller in the back. He had always wanted a huller. After he
“
By the mid-1990’s when the price
of almonds came to $.90 a pound,
Bob and Sue made the decision to
try marketing their own almonds.
”
bought it, he went to tell his wife Sue, that he bought
a huller with a little house in the front. She of course
asked about the house. In which he replied “I don’t
know, I didn’t look at the house. But there is a huller in
the back”. Sue always knew Bob wanted to be a farmer,
and from that 10 acres it all started.
Today, Bob and Sue farm with their two sons, Robert
and Ryan. Robert mostly handling the walnut huller
and harvesting while Ryan manages the almond huller
and marketing. Together, they farm almonds, walnuts
and diversified crops across the North State.
Vertically Integrated
Sue remembers they started farming by leasing
orchards from a few neighbors and bought a shaker to
be able to harvest as well. Bob’s father had an almond
orchard down the street and the family wanted to be
able to hull their own almonds. Over the years the
family grew and their farm expanded. By the mid-
1990’s when the price of almonds came to $.90 a
pound, Bob and Sue made the decision to try marketing
their own almonds. Sue recalls “we weren’t doing
a great job and kept getting a lot of bad advice”. Their
goal was to do as much themselves so they didn’t have
to rely on other people. Bob and Sue were committed
to being vertically integrated and knew it was the best
thing for their farm and their family.
In the meantime, Ryan worked off the farm after
college at another local almond farm and learned how
the processing side of almonds worked. In 2001, Ryan
came back to the family farm and they started doing
all their own almond processing. “Even today, we have
never gone out and tried to get other business. The
people we manage for or lease orchards from started
sending us their product. As our other contracts were
up, we just didn’t renew them and we started doing our
own processing. We just started to all grow together.
As farmers made more money, they started buying
more property and we all grew our businesses together.”
“From that point we started to do everything
ourselves. From planting an orchard, farming, management,
harvesting, hulling, shelling, processing,
exporting. That’s kind of been our business model.
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West Coast Nut September 2019