OUR STORY

In 1966, a group of almond growers came together from the areas around Chowchilla, Le Grand and Merced and concluded that the region needed “premium quality hulling and shelling.” Minturn Hulling Cooperative, Inc. was born.

Our cooperative originally shared the 5-acre location and staff of the Minturn Cooperative Cotton Gin, hulling our first crop in 1967. That first plant processed nearly 2 million pounds for an original membership of 40 growers.

Twenty years later, Minturn Huller was among the first hullers in California to expand into shelling, with a new technique that made processor returns more profitable for growers. Then, in 1994, the cooperative constructed the first of two new facilities, resulting in further increases in both production and efficiencies.

By 1997, the plant was shelling out an impressive 21 million meat pounds per year as the almond industry grew at an unprecedented rate. Sensing the trend, Minturn Huller constructed a second plant in 1998. And soon afterward, we expanded our services yet again to meet the growing demand for inshell almonds.

With a widespread reputation for superior quality, copious production and leading-edge innovation, Minturn Huller constructed our third – and largest – plant in 2014. This state-of-the-art plant more than doubled our total facility daily output capacity, producing nearly 40,000 meat pounds per hour – over 1 million meat pounds per day – while meeting the strict protocols of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Today, in facilities throughout our 100-acre property, Minturn Huller meets all plant sanitation, air quality, product quality and product segregation requirements, achieving a consistent “Superior” rating with our proven Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) program.