We're growers first
Welcome to GoldRiver Orchards! The Bartons have been growing walnuts in the San Joaquin Valley since 1912—and now we invite you to join us.
GoldRiver Orchards is meticulous in providing outstanding quality to its customers. But to do that consistently, we need the same great quality from our growers. We pay top returns, we pay our growers consistently and on time—and we never, ever stop the growers’ harvest. At GoldRiver Orchards, we understand the needs of the grower. After all, we were growers first—and we always will be.
Our Values
As growers ourselves, we understand the vital importance of maintaining absolute honesty with everyone we work with—our suppliers, our employees, our customers, and most importantly—our growers. Growers are often presented with numerous promises, which are easily made and just as easily broken.
At GoldRiver Orchards, we make very few promises, but we regard the ones we do make as inviolable. For instance, we provide our growers with the average prices of each variety every year. This allows them to compare their returns with the average returns of all GoldRiver growers. We avoid manipulating the numbers by reporting returns for the “top 30%” or dividing returns into tiers. Instead, we simply present our growers with the facts, enabling them to make a straightforward and valid comparison.
We provide superior quality products to our customers worldwide. We pursue the highest standards of excellence through responsible and innovative stewardship of the land, assets and relationships entrusted to our care.
What We Offer
We absolutely, positively will not stop the harvest.
During the heat of the harvest season, growers are battling the elements—a crop that’s ready to come off the trees, equipment issues, labor management concerns during the long work hours of the harvest, and the pervasive threat of inclement weather which can variously affect product quality or even stop the harvest altogether. At GoldRiver Orchards, we have never stopped the harvest of our outside growers for any reason. We’ve never gotten “plugged”, even during the height of the Chandler harvest. And we don’t intend to. That means we have to lay in a series of contingency plans prior to the harvest—and be ready to pull the levers we’ve implemented in advance so that the receiving season is seamless for our growers and the commercial huller operations that service them.
We make four payments—the first week of November, the last day of the calendar year, the first full week of April, and a final payment by the end of July. Our stated goal is to return to you about 60% of your total payment by the New Year—and we write it in our annual grower contract.
Growers always have the right to request a re-grade. We skew our re-grade process in favor of the grower in this respect: if the second grade is better than the first one, the grower gets the second grade. If the first grade is better, we average the two. We believe this is one of the most generous re-grade policies in the industry.
We pay our largest grower, Barton Ranch, on exactly the same rate and scale as all of our other growers. We make no distinction.
GoldRiver’s commitment to quality has placed the company among the top 10% of walnut handlers in California for product quality. This allows GoldRiver’s growers to benefit from the company’s pricing leverage, resulting in above-average grower payouts.