History Limoneira

limoneira s lemon exhibit (right) featured @ alaska–yukon–pacific exposition in 1909

limoneira founded in 1893 @ union oil company building in santa paula, california nathan blanchard, sr., 1 of founders of santa paula, , wallace hardison , started 412.96 acres of land on time increase company grew. portuguese limoneira means lemon grove or lemon farm principal crop. year 1895 milestone company when planted 690 orange trees, first non-lemon product. 1898 company had 50,000 trees, consisting of: 32,000 lemon trees, 3,000 grapefruit trees , 12,000 orange trees. year, blanchard retired , appointed charles m. teague successor.

the limoneira plantation had own fire department, still exists today , 1 of oldest continuously operating fire departments in ventura county. in 1901, limoneira achieved first net profit , paid first dividend stockholders following year. in 1907, limoneira purchased 2,300 acre olivelands tract, acquiring 1,000 of agriculture walnuts, olives, beans, corn , hay and, because converted 1,300 livestock grazing, company purchased santa paula , horse , feed company next year. in january 1908, newspaper ventura free press ran story limoneira called greatest lemon ranch in world , saying further increase in size of largest lemon plantation in world...will result of planting season @ limoneira ranch. there now...27,000 bearing lemon trees on property, , year trees on 300 acres more. crop last year largest since planting has begun..bigness not chief end kept in view management of ranch. growth of enterprise, in fact, has come never flagging efforts maintain , improve quality of product. in addition lemons, ranch has 500 acres of walnuts .

by 1913, company s growth evident , santa paula chronicle said lemoneira (sic) company has demonstrated wisdom of ample frost protection. company ship more 450 cars of lemons year, approximately one-third of entire amount shipped state . 1916, company battling sunkist both of them had nationally recognized products , limoneira refused exclusively brand oranges sunkist later reluctantly agreed.

by 1920s, company’s acreage under cultivation had quadrupled in less 30 years , numerous building , expansion projects underway. solid base created in previous 30 years pulled company through depression , challenges of 1940s. in 1900, teague manager, built company state s largest citrus holding , world s largest acreage. company joined southern california fruit exchange before pulling out few years later , joining again in 1911.

the company once set record deepest oil in ventura county before abandoning in 1949. many others in search of oil oil never found on limoneira properties despite several companies participating in drilling, including superior oil company, richfield oil corporation, humble oil, unocal corporation , standard oil. throughout history, has employed foreign labor includind japanese , mexicans. in 1924, after immigration act of 1924 barred japanese immigration, particularly focused on mexican labor. since 1970s, limoneira has been leading lemon supplier japan , distributes korea, china, philippines , thailand. in 1985, limoneira partnered samuel edwards associates become limoneira associates until limoneira become 1 company again in 1990.

in 2005, limoneira made cross-equity agreement calavo growers limoneira got 6.9 stake of calavo while calavo got 15.1 stake in limoneira. in 2013, limoneira acquired associated citrus packers, inc. of yuma, arizona $18.6 million. in 2014, acquired martin ranching company $1.4 million.