Raisine farmers blame the longtime Frena County pack of torn them

Several farmers of Fresno County accuse Sanger Raisin Packer for not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for their raisins, but never received.

Farmers claim that the Chooljian Brothers Packing Company accepted their raisins last year, realizing they would be sold and that growers would receive income by minus processing costs.

One grower stated that Choolians attracted him from another packager, who promised he would be paid in full within 60 days of the delivery of his raisins.

“That 60 days deadline came and went,” said the farmer Tony Panoo of Selma. “It’s been a few months and I can’t get to that place to tell me what’s going on.”

The 73-year-old said he received only a part of about $ 55,000 to which he owes. He farms 20 ares of Thompson grapes without seeds, the dominant raisin grape varieties grown in the Fresno district.

“I depend on that money for harvest and pay bills,” Panoo said.

Pano will meet a lawyer to find out what his next step will be.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture investigates this type of complaints, but a spokesman for the department said their policy was not approved whether the company was investigated.

Choolians are considered one of the most prominent packagers of Fresno County, who have been working for 77 years. The company is led by brother and sister Mike Chooljian and Sandra Barr.

Neither the barr nor the Chooljian will comment.

Other grape farmers say they are owed by money

However, when the company officials are silent, more farmers speak.

Ron Bettinsoli, a farmer in Kerman district, said he owes more than $ 1 million. USD for raisins for which the contract was made to deliver the Chooljian processing plant in the southwestern Sanger.

Like other farmers, Bettinsoli repeatedly asked the company owners to fulfill the end of their agreement. He has yet to get an explanation as to why he was not paid.

“This is not a way to manage a business. People need to try to get loans or pull out money from retirement to try to keep their farms,” ​​Bettinsoli said.

Another farmer who asked to be unspecified said he owed him about $ 150,000 for the harvest he introduced to the Chooljian brothers four years ago. The farmer is considering legal actions.

“I send them an email once a week and they keep telling me they work with it,” the farmer said. “It suck. They live their lives and we try to scratch.”

Previous lawsuit of Fresno County against brothers Chooljian

This is not the first time the Chooljians has been accused of incomplete -paying farmers.

The records of the High Court of Fresno County show that the farmer in the district of Raisin, Fresno County, submitted a breach of the contract to the Chooljet, suspecting that they owed $ 1.6 million. USD for his 2017

In a court lawsuit, the farmer said he had filed 1000 plus tons of Fiesta and Thompson without seeds to the packager. Although 2018 January 11th The company increased the farmer by $ 47,674.81 and in 2018 January 19 – $ 50,000.00, they were still not paid full.

The farmer claims that if he had known that the company was trying financially, he would never have agreed to do business with them.

“Shortly after or after the defendant Chooljian, the brothers made a written agreement with the plaintiff whether he had the opportunity to fulfill all his financial obligations,” the lawsuit states. “The defendant Chooljian brothers are always mentioned here, so it is not properly capitalized that, compared to the business that the accused and the risk of losses have to be done, its capitalization was illusory.”

The case is expected.

;