Royal Ridge Fruits an effort to maximize earnings
ROYAL CITY - Karl Dorsing was looking for a safer way to make a living when he moved to the Royal Slope in 1962. His family ended up with a fruit freezing and drying business that thrives and grows, as the family does.
Royal Ridge Fruits, which produces frozen and dried fruits, was launched at the turn of the century. Seven family members sit on the board of directors, including President Kevin Dorsing.
The other members are his father, Les, his uncle Terry, his uncle Curt, his brother Scott and cousins Bryce and Patrick.
"It works great," Kevin said. "We've have an ability to work together."
Scott is president of Dorsing Farms, which has grown to 2,500 acres since Karl broke the ground he acquired through a lottery. There are 120 seasonal employees.
Dorsing Farms yields a variety of products in addition to the round, juicy red, tart Montmorency cherries that are Royal Ridge's specialty. These include sweet cherries, blueberries, raspberries and apples, along with hay, wheat, and organic produce certified by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
It is from that farm that Royal Ridge Fruits sprang. It provides dried and frozen cherries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries to the baking ingredients market. The Royal Ridge products end up in pies, muffins, pancakes and the like.
"They are found in trail mixes," Kevin said.
Royal Ridge products are sold to distributors and manufacturers. It is part of Kevin's job to promote and market them.
Royal Ridge had a booth at the 2010 International Baking Industry Exposition in Las Vegas. The IBIE is one of the world's largest Baking Expos, showcasing more than 700 companies from around the world.
"The sales team travels all over. We have sales in Europe and South America," Kevin said.
Royal Ridge Fruits exhibited at the 2012 IFT Food Expo in Las Vegas in June. The IFT Food Expo joins tens of thousands of food professionals from around the world each year.
Karl Dorsing, Kevin's grandfather, was a logger in Sweet Home, Ore. before moving to Royal. He was 45, a father of seven and fearful that the dangers of logging could deal him and his family a tough fate. He decided farming in Royal, where his children could help, would be safer, and profitable.
The Dorsings started to grow sweet cherries in the 1970s. They started doing the tart Montmorency variety in the 1980s. Today Royal Ridge Fruits is the largest producer of frozen Montmorency tart cherries on the West Coast, with more than 10 million pounds a year.
The next step for the family was freezing and drying. That eliminated some middle men and added value to the farm's production.
"We thought about it for a long time," Kevin said.
Today, 60 people have year around employment at the plant. The plant operates all year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Dorsings are able to provide year-around employment by freezing all of the fruit first. Some goes out to the market in that form. The rest of it is thawed, then dried as needed for the dried fruit market.