HMC News – July 2026
Place your orders! Harvest is about to begin on our Belcanto™ green seedless table grapes, and this is a variety you won’t want
to miss. These small, green, seedless grapes are a delightful summer treat known for their exceptionally sweet flavor, crisp
texture, and petite berry size. Available for a limited time during the summer season, Belcanto™ grapes are as memorable as they
are delicious—offering outstanding eating quality that keeps shoppers coming back for more.
Along with our full line up of conventional grapes, HMC Farms provides Value Added grapes for any and all of your foodservice, school, deli, restaurant, etc. needs. Our Lunch Bunch® portioned grapes are known throughout the industry as the original foodservice grape and are currently available in three colors: red, green, and black.
If you are interested in providing grapes that are washed and ready to eat, we have Grape Escape® available in single serve bags, 5 lb trays, and in a 22 lb bulk pack. Please reach out to your HMC sales respresentative to learn more today!
This has been a fascinating tree fruit season—unlike any we’ve experienced before. While harvest has been running earlier than in past years, the challenging part is that the shift hasn’t been consistent across varieties. Instead of each variety advancing by a similar number of days, they are maturing at different rates, causing the harvest order to differ from what we typically expect.
XLSOR has been an invaluable tool this season, helping us forecast harvest dates despite the unpredictable conditions. While there is still time left in the season, current XLSOR projections indicate that harvest will remain ahead of schedule, with the final varieties expected to finish approximately 15-30 days earlier than normal.
F3 Innovate officially launched the F3i Supercomputing Center, bringing together leaders from agriculture, government, higher education, technology, research, and philanthropy to mark a significant investment in the future of California’s food and agriculture economy. The F3i Supercomputing Center brings advanced computing, data science expertise, AI model development, technical support, and workforce training together in a shared regional resource designed around the needs of California food, agriculture, and life sciences. During the launch, Drew Ketelsen (pictured above) shared how HMC Farms is working with F3i to apply AI to decades of operational data, work that can reduce analyses that once took days or weeks to a much faster process when decisions about harvest timing, quality, labor, and production require minute-to-minute precision.
A heat wave has settled into California’s Central Valley, with triple-digit temperatures expected throughout the coming days. While hot summer weather is nothing new for the Valley, this marks our first extended stretch of 100-degree days this season. As always, we’re taking extra precautions to protect both our employees and the fruit, carefully adjusting harvest schedules and field operations to make the most of the cooler morning hours while keeping worker safety our top priority.