Yet another of California’s summer fruits is...

Yet another of California’s summer fruits is finding its way into Japan for the first time. Nakagawa Brothers Farms of Dinuba, Calif., and Mayfair Packing Co. of San Jose began shipping nectarines this month to Japan, where consumers now can get a taste of California-grown cherries, grapes, strawberries, melons and kiwi.

But going abroad with nectarines hasn’t been easy. The California shippers had to set up expensive, special fumigation facilities to treat the fruit before it would be accepted in Japan. Then they had to wait for Japanese inspectors to arrive to personally inspect it.

Nakagawa Brothers, for example, expects to ship $4 million worth of nectarines but exhausted most of its funds on setting up its processing plant. “We had the orders in hand but were unable to obtain the necessary financing to process, package and ship the nectarines prior to receipt of payment from our overseas buyers.”

The solution: The California Export Finance Program guaranteed a $350,000 loan from Bank of America.