Why a California farmer is giving away 125,000 pounds of nectarines to the general public

People in central California fill their bags with free nectarines.

A central California farmer is giving away his entire crop of nectarines, telling the public they can come and take some free nectarines. And thousands have flocked to his orchard in Reedley, California, this week to pick up some free fruit. 

All told, Cesar Mora is giving away a staggering 125,000 pounds of nectarines, and he's doing so because he's locked in a legal dispute with a big agricultural corporation that is preventing him from selling his nectarine harvest. 

“It was really just a thought of not wasting a perfectly good product,” Mora told The Associated Press. “It does make a grower feel good, being able to share my fruit with people and see their immediate reaction that they love it. It’s a little bit of good in this tough situation that I’ve been dealing with.”

In 2023, the Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. slapped Mora with a lawsuit accusing him of selling a specific variety of white nectarine to other fruit distributors, which the company said violated the exclusivity agreement it had signed with Mora. Mora told local TV station ABC30 Giumarra Brothers engaged in unfair business practices that prevented him from making any profit from his harvest, and that he began selling to other distributors to generate more revenue. 

The case is set to go to trial later this month, but the legal wrangling has left Mora barred from selling any of the harvest. But he has been able to give the fruit away, which he decided to do rather than simply allow the nectarines to rot in the orchard, like he's done the past couple of seasons. 

Mora has been posting about his plight -- and promoting the free nectarines -- on social media, but this week said he was hit with another cease-and-desist letter that ordered him to stop giving away the free nectarines. 

"I don't think food should go to waste," Alejandro Madrid, who visited Mora's orchard to pick up some free nectarines, told ABC30. "Especially if it's nice and ripe -- just because of a lawsuit." Mora said he plans to continue giving away free nectarines until the entire harvest is gone. For more on the story, watch the report from ABC30 below.