Celebrating West Side Agriculture 2020

8 | HONORING WEST SIDE AGRICULTURE THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020
Lara hulling operation expands to meet demand
NEWMAN - A local
farming operation which
takes almonds from orchard
to shelled meats is
undergoing an extensive
renovation to increase capacity
of its rural Newman
processing facility.
The huller is part of
Richard Lara Farms, Inc.,
Paul Lara, left,
and his father
Mike Lara,
pictured at the
rural Newman
hulling
operation of
Richard Lara
Farms, Inc.
which also has about 700
acres of orchards primarily
in the Westley/Patterson
area.
Corporate President
Mike Lara, said he and
three sons also operate a
variety of West Side orchards
that, in addition to
almonds, produce walnuts
and cherries.
“They all farm on their
own as well as working for
me,” he explained.
The family farming
operation, which traces
its heritage back to Mike
Lara’s father Richard and
his brothers, once was
focused on row crops but
in more recent years almonds
have emerged as
the focal point of the operation.
Lara Farms Inc, the predecessor
to Richard Lara
Farms Inc., at one point
operated in Fresno County,
the Newman area and
Westley/Patterson.
The operation began
growing almonds in the
mid-1970s, Lara said, and
in the mid-1980s built the
Stuhr Road huller.
The brothers split into
three separation corporation
around 1993, he said,
and Richard Lara Farms
has owned the huller since.
Lara said he continued
to farm in Fresno County,
but left that area in 2000
due to lack of water, choosing
to concentrate instead
on the huller and farming
operations in the Westley/
Patterson area.
“It was a constant battle.
I couldn’t do it any more,”
he said of the challenging
water shortages in Fresno
County.
Now, he continues as a
grower and processor on
the West Side.
The huller processes
not only almonds grown
on the various Lara farms
but those from other area
producers.
Demand has grown
along with the state’s almond
acreage and production,
Lara told Mattos
Newspapers, and an extensive
renovation under
way this spring will significantly
increase capacity
and efficiency.
The renovation is the
latest chapter in the evolution
of the huller.
One of the biggest
changes to the operation
has been implementation
of digital product tracking.
Each load is issued a
bar code when it comes
across the scale, which allows
processor and grower
to track their product
throughout the process.
At the Lara operation,
the focus is on quickly processing
the product and
shipping it to the buyer.
“We try to store nothing
here. We only do one thing.
We take almonds from
the field product to clean
meats,” Lara commented.
“They are getting shelled
out all the way in one operation.
Ours was one of
the first plants to do it that
way. We will have the capacity
to do in-shell as well
but I am not going to push
for that. There are enough
guys doing in-shell.”
Once processed, the almond
meats are promptly
delivered.
“Ours go straight to
Blue Diamond. Some go
to Stewart & Jasper,” Lara
noted. “We try to deliver in
no more than two weeks.”
In the orchards, water
remains an ongoing challenge.
In response and anticipating
future drought,
See LARA | PAGE 9
John & Florie Nunes
office: 854.6325
mobile: 209.495.1964