Ratto Bros. embraces fleet of electric forklifts

Across more than 400 hectares of farmland in Modesto, Calif., Ratto Bros. grows 40 different types of leafy and root vegetables—from savoy cabbage and kale to leek and celery root. For such highly perishable leafy vegetables, speed is of the essence.

“The savoy cabbages that we harvest, chill and package in the morning can be on supermarket shelves by the evening of the same day,” says Anthony Ratto, great-grandson of Antone Ratto, the founder of the company, which serves major supermarkets like Kroger.

Every day up to 12,000 packages leave the site. Lift trucks, powered by electricity from a solar farm, play an important role in the sustainable farming business of Ratto Bros. The company uses a fleet of 15 forklifts and 20 hand pallet trucks.

Running the business in an ecologically sustainable way is a core principle of Ratto Bros. and, according to Ratto, the choice of forklift brand is an important element of this strategy.

“The technology helps us pursue a sustainable farming model,” he says. “To me, sustainability involves a range of things, and one of them is using our production resources—such as water, soil and energy—in a responsible way.”

This is not a spur-of-the-moment move to tap into a new trend, though.

“Our family has always taken care of the land and environment in which we farm. We’ve always taken care of the people who work for us, and we’ve used resources wisely to be productive and control costs,” Ratto explains. “These were all things that came naturally to the generations before me. Now, there is this term sustainability, which people use to describe the decisions and business practices that we’ve been doing at Ratto Bros. for more than 100 years.”

The use of electric forklifts is only one of the many examples of the company’s commitment to green practices. To run an eco-friendly business, it has also installed a solar farm. And the energy generated by the photovoltaic panels can power not only the fleet of electric trucks, but also the company’s more energy-intensive hydro cooling system.

To keep them fresh, the system sprays a mist of cold water onto recently harvested vegetables. This is particularly important for leafy vegetables that can spoil quickly, especially when the thermometer can easily climb well above 100 degrees.