Case Studies Produce

Picking from the produce section of a grocery store is often a gamble, especially if fruit is concealed by peels or rinds. As the co-owner of Turlock Fruit, Stephen Smith hates it when someone buys a melon only to cut it open and find pale, unripe flesh, which is common with cantaloupe and honeydew melon. […]

Not everyone dreams of taking over their family business. Joan Daleo, however, is thrilled to be at the helm of the company her parents started in 1973. Since becoming president of Ole Tyme Produce in 2001, she’s grown it into the largest woman-owned, fresh food distributor in Missouri. The St. Charles-based company distributes locally grown […]

Charles “Chuck” Obern discovered his passion for growing things as a high school student in the early 1970s, working in nurseries located north of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Now, as the founder of C&B Farms, his produce stocks the shelves of many grocery store chains around the country. His farms, located in Clewiston, Florida, and Cape Charles, […]

In Wynne, Arkansas, the Matthews family, owners and operators of Matthews Ridgeview Farms (MRF), has been growing sweet potatoes for more than a century. The company’s roots in agriculture trace to Samuel Doke Matthews, who started out as a sharecropper, growing cotton in Arkansas. Today, Samuel’s great-great-grandson, Terris Matthews, and his wife, Kim Matthews, run […]

After more than 120 years in business, Buurma Farms Inc. remains a household name in the agriculture industry. Since the beginning, Buurma Farms has remained a family-owned business and is currently in its fifth generation of the Buurma family. Headquartered in Willard, Ohio, Buurma Farms manages 1,200 acres in both Michigan and Ohio, as well […]

With roots tracing all the way back to 1888, Rainier Fruit Company has become one of the nation’s largest growers of organic apples, pears, cherries and blueberries. Located in the heart of Washington’s Yakima Valley — one of the country’s most productive growing regions for apples, wine grapes and hops — Rainier has leveraged the […]

Founded in 1986, Shasta Produce has grown to become the largest wholesale distributor of fruits and vegetables in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded as Andrighetto Produce Inc., the family-owned and – operated company is run by CEO David Andrighetto, who, along with his two brothers and sister, got their start selling citrus out of […]

DiMare Fresh has been delivering top-quality produce to grocery stores, restaurants and the food service industry since 1928. Started as a small family-run operation on the streets of Boston more than 80 years ago, DiMare was founded by brothers Dominic, Joseph and Anthony DiMare. “My father and uncles started in Haymarket Square as pushcart peddlers […]