photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
The century old brick Manzana Products plant on Green Valley Road, near the small
community of Graton, stands as the final producer from an era when apples
dominated Sebastopol's agricultural economy.

What has long been touted as the "Gravenstein Apple Capital of the World" might be no more.

The last apple plant said it's leaving west Sonoma County, for that other renowned apple mecca: Washington State.

For more than a century, apples have flowed in, and sauce, juice and vinegar have flowed out of the Manzana Products factory on Green Valley Road in Graton.

But for Manzana, the company that's helped keep Sebastopol’s famous Gravenstein apple alive, their 103rd year in business will be their last in Graton.

Manzana is the maker of North Coast Organics line of apple products.

The company recently announced plans to relocate operations to Washington State’s Yakima Valley by December of 2025.

Manzana CEO Andy Kay said the decision comes following talks late last year with Agrial, the French Ag Cooperative that owns Manzana.

"California is 2% of apple production in the US," Kay said. "Washington state is nearly 70%, and that's similar for organic apples, which is what we're in the business of doing."

"There's less than a thousand acres of apples within Sonoma County today," Kay said. "Whereas there used to be 15,000 plus in the 1940s, 1950s."

Kay said the decline of apple orchards in Sonoma County, and the company’s continued growth, put it on a collision course with the decision to move.

"80% or more of our apples come from Washington state today," Kay said. "And the cost of transporting those, just the general challenge of doing business in California, and the sustainability impact of transporting apple's 800 plus miles means that for the logical choice is for us to, to relocate to Washington state."

Kay said he understands the blow the move is to Sebastopol and Sonoma County’s agricultural community, and more acutely, its heritage.

"It's 100-year-old building and, and some of the equipment's a hundred years old as well, but it's in a pretty good location and it's kind of, it's very well known as...a landmark within West County," Kay said. "And so I'm sure we'll be talking to lots of people who could be interested in buying this place."

According to Kay, Manzana buys almost all the organic apples still grown in Sonoma County, and the company has committed to buying fruit from local producers for the next five years.

Kay said Manzana also plans to keep operations at the plant in Graton unchanged for the next 12 months, before phasing operations north to Sunnyside, Washington.

It's a timeline Kay said will give employees who want to stay with Manzana a chance to relocate.