Ontario will lose Sunkist plant soon

ONTARIO - It is one of the last remaining testaments to the flourishing citrus industry that once dominated and shaped this region.

And soon it, too, will be gone.

Sunkist recently announced its plant in Ontario will be heading to the Central Valley - a trail already blazed by much of the agriculture in the area.

"It's always hard to make a move, but this move is going to be very beneficial and cost-effective for the growers," said Claire Smith, spokeswoman for Sunkist.

And California and Arizona growers who make up the Sunkist cooperative will be able to haul all their fruit to the Tipton facility - sort of like a one-stop shop in the Central Valley, she said.

Smith said the timing is ideal, too, since the harsh January freeze left few lemons for the Ontario plant to make into juice, oil and other by-products anyway.

The move cannot come as a shock to anyone who has watched the

citrus packinghouses close down and the orange groves get torn out and replaced with homes little by little since the 1950s.

Still, the exodus of Sunkist's plant from Ontario is the end of an important chapter in local history.

The plant's story began in 1926, when Ontario was selected as the location for the orange produce plant because it was the "ton-mile center," William E. Baier said in an oral history from 1978.

It was the shortest hauling distance from all other points, which included growers in the San Joaquin Valley, Ventura County and the Redlands area, Baier said.

The Exchange Orange Products Company in Ontario was able to turn losses into profits for growers just in time for the Great Depression.

Fruits that couldn't be sold on the fresh market could still make money. A popular early by-product was marmalade, but citrus was also processed into juice, oils, pectin, cattle feed, and citric acid, among other things.

A research facility was housed onsite at the Ontario plant as well, and scientists tested citrus parts, such as pectin, which makes jelly and was thought to be a blood extender during World War II.

In 1970, the old plant came down and a new facility designed to process 1 million tons of citrus products a year went up in its place on the 25-acre property.

Many citrus-based products were developed and marketed during this time, including Sunkist orange soda, Sunkist popsicles and Sunkist fruit gems candy.

In the past few decades, though, the demand for housing in the region has sent local growers - along with dairymen - north or out of state.

"The cost per acre makes it more profitable for farmers to sell their land than to grow their crops," said John Roe, sector superintendent for California Citrus State Historic Park in Riverside. "Riverside alone was 20,000 acres of citrus agriculture. Today, we're looking at 2,000 acres."

Smith said the Sunkist plant's pending departure works on many levels for citrus growers.

"Lemon peels are used for cattle feed, and that's going to be quite a popular ingredient now because corn is being used more for ethanol, and the dairies that used to be down here have moved up to Central California," Smith said. "So, it makes sense from all standpoints."

The logic behind the move may be sound, but the Sunkist plant's departure from Ontario will still be a cultural loss.

And the news might not be celebrated by the plant's 45 employees who might soon be out of jobs.

Smith said several of the employees will be offered a chance to relocate up north, but it's likely those with homes or family in Southern California will decline.

The Sunkist plant on Sunkist Street in Ontario, however, will continue operations by contract for about one year, until the move to Tipton is complete, Smith said.