California grower Cesar Mora has been giving away more than 100,000 pounds of white nectarines from his Reedley, California orchard after a contracting dispute with Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. over the Monalise variety left him unable or unwilling to sell the fruit, drawing thousands of visitors this week. Mora, a third generation farmer, said he could not bear to watch the crop rot and that sharing the fruit felt like "a little bit of good in this tough situation." Giumarra filed suit against Mora in 2023, alleging Mora breached agreements by selling the Monalise variety to other packers and saying Star Fruits Diffusion owns the variety while Giumarra holds sublicensing rights. Giumarra told AP that the disagreement involves two written agreements and is being resolved in court, and a trial is scheduled later this month. Family members and volunteers wearing "No Nectarines Wasted" T-shirts have bagged fruit for the free giveaways as Mora accuses the company of unfair and fraudulent business practices. The dispute highlights tensions between growers and plant breeders or large marketers over exclusive rights to new fruit varieties, with the immediate consequence that Mora is distributing his harvest rather than placing it on the market before the court resolves the contract claims.
