Rice Fruit Company is the largest apple-packing facility in the Eastern half of the United States. Situated in the heart of Pennsylvania’s prime orchard country, the company receives, stores, and packs more than a million boxes of high-quality fresh Pennsylvania apples annually.
Rice Fruit Company is a family business, which was founded in 1913. It is now managed by four brothers who represent the third generation of the family to run the business. The brothers (David, Ted, John, and Mark) grow fruit on 800 acres of apple, peach, nectarine, and pear orchards in Adams County. The fresh fruit grown on these farms account for about one fifth of the fruit packed and marketed by Rice Fruit Company. The other 80% is supplied by other fruit-growing families with orchards in the same famous fruit belt of South-central Pennsylvania.
Rice Fruit Company stores, packs, and ships over 20 varieties of apples, including Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Royal Gala, Empire, Fuji, Rome, Granny Smith and KIKU®. The apples are stored year-round in state-of-the-art controlled atmosphere storages and packed to specification using the newest electronic color-sorting equipment and gentle electronic sizers. The company also has the capacity to individually sticker fruit with variety information and PLU numbers when required.
Rice Fruit Company has the highest possible ratings in the industry for both ability and integrity. It has won numerous awards within the industry including the Governor’s Export Award for excellence in promoting Pennsylvania exports. Sales manager John Rice was awarded national industry awards as Apple Man of the Year by The Packer newspaper and Apple Grower of the Year by the American Fruitgrower magazine. In 2012, all 4 Rice brothers were honored as Growers of the Year by the Good Fruit Grower magazine, the first time the honor had ever gone to growers outside of the Northwest.
The company has developed a high reputation for packing and shipping consistent, high-quality fresh apples. Its large capacity and unique facilities allow the company to respond quickly to orders and to comply with special customer requests. The close proximity of the company to the major markets of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New York City allows the company to ship and deliver apples quickly with lower freight costs.