Tag: edible coating

Boosting California’s Tomato Industry with Aloecoat: A Sustainable Post-Harvest Solution

AloeCoat

Boosting California’s Tomato Industry with Aloecoat: A Sustainable Post-Harvest Solution

California reigns as the epicenter of U.S. tomato production, supplying over 90% of the nation’s processing tomatoes and a significant share of fresh-market tomatoes, with an industry valued at approximately $1.3 billion in 2023.

Thriving in the fertile Central Valley and other key regions, the state’s tomato sector faces challenges like post-harvest spoilage, environmental pressures, and operational inefficiencies, contributing to substantial fruit waste.

Aloecoat, a 100% natural, plant-based edible coating derived from aloe vera, offers a transformative post-harvest solution to reduce waste, extend shelf life, and optimize operations.

This article explores the key characteristics of California’s tomato production, leveraging the latest 2023–2024 data, and demonstrates how Aloecoat can elevate the industry’s sustainability and profitability.

Characteristics of Tomato Production in California

  1. Economic Significance and Production Volume
    In 2023, California produced 12.8 million short tons of processing tomatoes across 254,000 contracted acres, a 21.4% increase from 2022’s 10.5 million tons, valued at roughly $1.3 billion. For 2024, contracted production was forecast at 11.3 million tons across 226,000 acres, a 12% decrease from 2023 due to reduced acreage and high summer temperatures. Fresno County led with 53,400 acres in 2024, followed by Yolo (30,500 acres), Kings (18,800 acres), Madera (5,200 acres), and Tulare (2,100 acres), accounting for 65% of the state’s contracted acreage. Fresh-market tomatoes, while smaller in volume, contribute significantly, with California supplying nearly a third of U.S. fresh tomatoes, primarily from San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside counties.
  2. Regional and Seasonal Dynamics
    California’s tomato production is concentrated in the Central Valley (Fresno, Kings, Merced, Yolo, San Joaquin counties) for processing tomatoes, with fresh-market tomatoes grown in southern regions like San Diego and Imperial. The growing season begins with planting in late February to early March, facilitated by mild spring temperatures, and harvest runs from late June to October. In 2024, favorable spring conditions supported planting, but mid-season heatwaves reduced yields, with harvests concluding earlier than in 2023.
  3. Climatic and Soil Requirements
    Tomatoes thrive in California’s Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers (70–90°F) and well-drained, fertile loamy soils rich in organic matter. Drip irrigation and soil moisture monitoring are critical, especially amid ongoing drought concerns. In 2024, reservoirs were at 120% of historical levels early in the season, but low precipitation and a potential La Niña raised water allocation concerns, with the State Water Project at 10% as of December 2023. These conditions underscore the need for water-efficient practices to sustain yields.
  4. Post-Harvest Challenges
    Post-harvest losses, estimated at 20–30% for fresh tomatoes and 5–10% for processing tomatoes, pose significant challenges. Key issues include:
    • Microbial Spoilage: Fungal pathogens like Botrytis cinerea (gray mold) and bacterial soft rot cause decay during storage and transport, particularly under high humidity (85–95% RH).
    • Moisture Loss: Fresh tomatoes lose firmness and quality due to water loss, with thresholds as low as 3–5% causing shriveling and reduced marketability.
    • Physical Damage: Bruising and cracking from rough handling or over-maturity reduce quality, especially for fresh-market tomatoes.
    • Physiological Disorders: Blossom-end rot and sunscald, linked to calcium deficiencies or heat stress, affect appearance and shelf life.
      These challenges necessitate rapid cooling (0–13°C for fresh tomatoes, depending on ripeness), controlled atmosphere storage, and careful handling, yet inefficiencies persist, driving up waste and costs.
  5. Environmental and Regulatory Pressures
    Climate change, including heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires, threatens tomato production. In 2024, high summer temperatures reduced yields, while water scarcity remains a concern despite reservoir levels. Regulatory costs, including pesticide restrictions, have risen, with compliance expenses increasing 63.7% from 2017 to 2024. The Beet Curly Top Virus and parasitic weeds like broomrape also pose risks, though minimal damage was reported in 2023 due to wet conditions and improved pest management. The industry is adopting sustainable practices, such as drip irrigation and organic farming, to meet environmental standards and consumer demand.
  6. Labor and Operational Dynamics
    Tomato production is labor-intensive, particularly for fresh-market tomatoes, which require manual harvesting and packing. Processing tomatoes benefit from mechanized harvesting, reducing labor dependency. Post-harvest operations, including sorting, cooling, and transport, demand precision to minimize damage. In 2024, processors aimed to maintain efficient factory run rates despite lower contracted tonnage, highlighting the need for streamlined operations to offset reduced acreage and rising costs.

Aloecoat: Transforming Post-Harvest Tomato Management

Aloecoat, a biodegradable, edible coating made from aloe vera’s polysaccharides, enzymes, and bioactive compounds, forms a protective biofilm on tomatoes, reducing respiration, moisture loss, and microbial growth.

This innovative solution addresses California’s tomato industry challenges, enhancing sustainability and profitability.

Here’s how Aloecoat can make a difference:

  1. Reducing Post-Harvest Waste
    • Moisture Retention: Aloecoat’s polysaccharide-based coating minimizes water loss, preserving tomato firmness and preventing shriveling, especially for fresh-market varieties. This reduces losses from quality degradation, maintaining marketability beyond the typical 2–3-week shelf life.
    • Microbial Control: Aloe vera’s anthraquinones (e.g., aloin) provide natural antimicrobial properties, inhibiting pathogens like Botrytis cinerea and bacterial soft rot, reducing spoilage during storage and transport at 0–13°C.
    • Physical Damage Protection: Aloecoat’s protective layer minimizes bruising and cracking from handling, preserving tomato integrity for both fresh and processing markets.
    • Disorder Mitigation: By stabilizing cellular integrity and reducing ethylene production, Aloecoat helps prevent physiological disorders like blossom-end rot, ensuring premium quality.
  2. Extending Shelf Life
    Aloecoat slows respiration rates (10–30 ml CO2/kg·hr at 13°C for fresh tomatoes) and ethylene production, extending shelf life under optimal storage conditions (0–13°C, 85–95% RH). This enables longer storage and transport periods, supporting California’s $1.3 billion tomato industry and its role in supplying domestic and international markets, with exports contributing to the state’s $22.4 billion agricultural export market in 2023.
  3. Enhancing Sustainability
    As a non-toxic, plant-based coating, Aloecoat aligns with California’s sustainability goals and consumer demand for clean-label products. It reduces reliance on synthetic chemical treatments, such as fungicides, and supports organic farming, which saw $11.8 billion in sales in 2023. By minimizing waste, Aloecoat enhances environmental stewardship and market competitiveness.
  4. Improving Operational Efficiency
    • Simplified Handling: Aloecoat’s application (via dipping or spraying) integrates seamlessly into existing packing lines, reducing labor-intensive sorting or trimming of damaged tomatoes.
    • Cost Reduction: By minimizing waste (20–30% for fresh tomatoes), Aloecoat lowers losses from unsellable product and reduces equipment maintenance costs due to microbial buildup in storage systems.
    • Market Advantage: High-quality, longer-lasting tomatoes strengthen California’s position in global markets, supporting the $1.3 billion industry and boosting grower profitability.
  5. Climate Resilience
    Aloecoat mitigates climate-related challenges by protecting tomatoes from heat-induced quality degradation and environmental stressors. Its antioxidant properties, derived from aloe vera’s phenolic compounds, preserve flavor, texture, and nutritional value, ensuring premium quality despite heatwaves or drought, which impacted yields in 2024.

The Future of California’s Tomato Industry with Aloecoat

California’s tomato industry, valued at $1.3 billion in 2023, navigates a complex landscape of climate challenges, regulatory pressures, and post-harvest losses. Aloecoat offers a cutting-edge solution, leveraging aloe vera’s natural properties to reduce waste, extend shelf life, and enhance operational efficiency.

By integrating Aloecoat into post-harvest protocols, growers can address spoilage, meet consumer demand for sustainable products, and maintain California’s leadership in the global tomato market.

At aloegel.biz, we are dedicated to advancing sustainable agriculture with innovative aloe-based solutions.

Contact us to discover how Aloecoat can elevate your tomato production, minimize waste, and drive profitability in a competitive and evolving industry.

Advantages of AloeCoat for Fruits and Vegetables

aloecoat extends fresh produce shelf life

Advantages of AloeCoat for Fruits and Vegetables

AloeCoat is a 100% natural, plant based edible coating for use in fruits and vegetables. 

AloeCoat is made from purified extracts of aloe compounds, creating a biofilm on fresh produce, reducing respiration and perspiration, protecting from fungi and bacteria and thus extending shelf life of the products.

While it is true that AloeCoat offers a definitive solution to the great problem of food waste, it actually offers different solutions to each participant in the fruit and vegetable chain.

AloeCoat offers different advantages and benefits to producers, packaging, brokers, distributors, importers and consumers as a whole. Below we explain the main advantages of the product and to the different actors in the fresh produce chain.

1. Advantages of Our Edible Coating for Fruits and Vegetables Compared to Traditional Waxes

Strictly speaking, our product has an indirect competition with waxes, since vegetable, animal or mineral based waxes only provide preservation or polishing functions, but do not offer antibacterial or anti fungal functions.

Within this category, vegetable waxes are the most accepted in the market, since animal waxes are expensive (beeswax for example), and mineral waxes, as they come from petroleum, have a bleak future, since consumers tend to demand healthier products every day and therefore, they demand the elimination of waxes and food coatings from petroleum based materials, as it is the case with paraffin based waxes.

However, our AloeCoat edible coating is a green and sustainable option, not compared to conventional waxes, since it offers more benefits and advantages not only to the fruit or vegetable but to the food chain too (including commercial and logistic phases), as explained below.

When compared to waxes, our technological solutions contributes to climate change efforts. AloeCoat minimizes food waste and food loss, improving food safety and quality, thus saving a high volume of GHG emissions.

2. Advantages of our Edible Coating for Fruits and Vegetables compared to controlled atmosphere bags

Our technological solutions has also indirect competition with controlled atmosphere bags. This product only offer shelf life extension to fruits and vegetables, but do not offer anti fungal or antibacterial functions like our aloe-based solution.

The plastic bags offers protection in the complete packing, i.e. to the overall set of fruits that are packed inside the bag, but does not offer individual protection to each product.

The problem is, when an individual fruit is contaminated with fungus, the result is that a large percentage of the fruit packed in a controlled atmosphere bag is immediately contaminated.

By opposition, our products do not allow such fungal contamination. AloeCoat offers a shelf life extension, an antibacterial and anti fungal function, but those advantages are granted to each fruit or vegetable individually, since the coating cover each fruit and vegetable in particular, while the bag offers general protection, that is, the set of fruits and vegetables inside a box.

Besides it, the bag still is a plastic, and there is another problem for its disposal, causing concerns and damage to environment. AloeCoat is green and sustainable, environmentally friendly, having positive impact on the environment.

This allow AloeCoat to be at the forefront compared to other products in terms of advantages and benefits for the preservation of fruit and vegetables.

That is why we say that AloeCoat has no specific direct competition.

There is a long list of advantages of our Aloe based coating. In the conservation of vegetables and fruits, our products prolong the shelf life of the treated products, which allows increasing profitability, while reducing the cost for fruit and vegetable packaging companies, since they combine the function of wax with the added value of bactericidal, antiseptic and anti fungal properties.

3. Economic Advantages of using AloeCoat

Our product offers various advantages and benefits to all participants in the food chain. In general, there is a tendency to think that the advantages in the use of our product reach the agricultural growers or the fruit and vegetable packing companies.

This is correct, but these benefits also reach the other participants in the value chain, reaching the final consumer.

In other words, the benefit of using our AloeCoat for the protection of fruits and vegetables goes from the producer to the final consumer. From farm to the fork.

Very few products can account for such a wide range of benefits, and above all, that these benefits reach all the participants in an industry, reaching the consumer until the end user. This happen with AloeCoat.

Advantages for Fruit and Vegetable Producers

  • AloeCoat extends the life of the product, so there are fewer rejects and returns, and the producer receives  increased sales revenue and income.
  • The use of AloeCoat allows the producer to reduce the cost to purchase bactericides, antiseptic and anti fungal products, since our coating provides antibacterial, antiseptic and anti fungal functions.

Advantages for Fruit and Vegetable Packing Companies 

  • Lower associated cost, higher sales revenue, therefore higher profitability for the business.
  • AloeCoat allows products to be better preserved when they have long transportation journeys by truck, rail, ship or plane, meaning fewer losses and higher sales revenue and income.

Advantages for Brokers, Distributors and Importers of Fruits and Vegetables

  • AloeCoat extends the life of the product, which means fewer rejections and returns, and the broker has a greater margin for selling more products.
  • The use of our coating allows the broker to have less product loss due to contamination or fungal attacks, a situation that can occur frequently and that affects an important part of the shipments, reducing their final volume for sale.
  • With AloeCoat, the broker, distributor or importer has a greater opportunity to sell shipments and full loads, generating higher sales revenue.

Advantages for Fruit and Vegetable Retailers – Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, Stores and Retail Markets 

  • AloeCoat extends the life of the product, which means fewer rejections and returns.
  • The retailer has lower administrative and logistical costs involved in the merchandise return process, and it has more opportunity to sell all the product received, generating higher sales.
  • The use of our coating allows the retailer to receive the merchandise in good condition, without damage from bacteria or fungi.
  • The retailer can keep their product fresh and in good condition.
  • The retailer has no complaints about the use of polluting products such as mineral waxes.
  • The retailer has no disposal costs for controlled atmosphere bags. The bags are made with polyethylene that comes from petroleum, and must be confined, which generates a cost for the retailer. With AloeCoat, retailers do not have such disposal costs as it happens with the controlled atmosphere bag.
  • AloeCoat is biodegradable in a matter of minutes. On the contrary, Xtend type controlled atmosphere bags are degradable in a period close to 400 years!!!
  • With the use of AloeCoat, the retailer can show an environmental friendly approach before society and related communities, which adds value to its company. This situation does not happen with conventional coating products.

Advantages for Fruit and Vegetable Consumers

  • AloeCoat extends the life of the product, so there is less risk that a decrease in supply will raise the price of the product and harms the consumer.
  • The use of our coating does not increase the price of the product, so the consumer receives benefits without paying a higher price for it.
  • AloeCoat is a natural product, green and sustainable option, which is highly and widely valued by consumers.
  • AloeCoat is manufactured with renewable resources, generates a positive environmental impact, is a totally sustainable product, friendly to the environment, and manufactured under the process of a socially responsible company, which gives a higher value to consumer satisfaction.