How Prima Noce Packing Keeps More Good Product Where It Belongs
When you’ve been processing and exporting walnuts for over four decades, you understand something most newcomers don’t: the hardest part isn’t sorting. It’s managing variability. Every lot is different. Every variety behaves differently. And every time input shifts, your line feels it.
Prima Noce Packing Inc has built its reputation on exactly that kind of hands-on expertise. Based in Linden, California — one of the state’s premier walnut-growing regions — the company sources from local growers and processes both in-shell and shelled kernel products for domestic and international markets. Long-term grower relationships, strict quality control, and traceability aren’t talking points for them. They’re how the business runs.
The Challenge: Variability at Scale
Prima Noce wasn’t dealing with a broken system before Qcify. They were dealing with the natural limits of one.
Foreign material levels varied across lots and varieties. Manual inspection covered it — but it required constant oversight and adjustment. The question wasn’t whether they could manage it. It was whether they could manage it more consistently, with less reliance on manual intervention, and with better visibility into what was actually happening during production.
“We were looking for a more consistent, data-driven approach to improve detection and reduce reliance on manual inspection.”
—Joe Stacher, Plant Manager
That shift — from reactive oversight to proactive control — is what started the conversation with Qcify.
A Relationship Built Before the Sale
Prima Noce didn’t discover Qcify through a cold call or a trade show booth. They already knew the team.
That familiarity mattered. It meant the decision wasn’t based on a pitch — it was based on a track record. Qcify’s focus on data-driven decision making and continuous improvement aligned directly with Prima Noce’s own quality-first philosophy, and when the time came to move forward, the foundation was already there.
The implementation reflected that. The Qcify team was responsive, worked closely with the Prima Noce operation, and kept disruption to production minimal during commissioning.
What Changed on the Line
Since installing the AIR machines, the difference has been visible. Foreign material levels reaching manual sort are measurably lower. That means visual sorters spend less time catching what the machine should have caught, and more time focusing on other quality attributes. The finished product is cleaner and more consistent — not because the process got easier, but because the system handles variation better.
“The added visibility into performance has helped us better understand variability across lots and make more informed adjustments during production.”
—Joe Stacher, Plant Manager
That visibility is part of the value. When you can see what’s happening in real time, you stop guessing and start adjusting. Less good product ends up in the wrong stream. More of it stays where it belongs.
Easy to Run, Consistent Across Shifts
One of the practical tests for any new system is whether it runs the same way at the end of a shift as it does at the start — regardless of who’s operating it.
For Prima Noce, the AI-based control system passed that test. Joe describes it as intuitive and easy for operators to learn, which has reduced day-to-day variability in how the machine is managed. Consistent operation across shifts means consistent output. That’s not a small thing in a high-throughput processing environment.
The Bigger Picture
Better quality control isn’t just an operational win. It’s a commercial one.
“It supports our goal of being a dependable, high-quality supplier that customers can trust as a long-term partner.”
—Joe Stacher, Plant Manager
Tighter control across lots means less variability between shipments. Less variability between shipments means customers get what they expect, every time. In a specification-driven industry where trust is built slowly and lost quickly, that consistency is what keeps relationships intact.
What’s Next
Prima Noce sees room to go further. As the Qcify platform evolves, Joe points to hyperspectral imaging as an area of strong potential — integrating more advanced sensor inputs with AI-driven decision making to push detection capabilities even further.
For processors evaluating whether a move like this makes sense, his position is straightforward: if you want to strengthen your quality control and take a more data-driven approach to production, Qcify is worth a serious look.
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