Case Studies Region: Southeast

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, […]

The size of the Lone Star State not withstanding, word can travel fast. Especially in the agricultural industry, where farmers learn early which contractors and builders they can rely upon for the equipment and services so necessary to enable their high-stakes, potentially high-reward operations. It’s a fact of Texas life that Brett Marek grew accustomed […]

The Braswell family has supplied Americans with eggs and animal feed products since 1943. Back then, everything took place in the family’s water-powered mill in Nashville, North Carolina. Over the past 70 years that operation grew into several more locations and companies. All of them fell under the umbrella of Braswell Foods, a vertically integrated […]

You probably didn’t give too much thought to those hanging flowers you bought at Lowe’s or another big-box store for $10 or $12. But someone did, and it’s very likely that someone was involved at a massive greenhouse and distribution operation in the north-central Kentucky city of Paris, or its second facility in Granville, Illinois. […]

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 […]

Since its inception in 2003, Mercator Inc. has grown from a small, home-based food export company into a $26 million enterprise that distributes North American beef, turkey, pork, chicken, dairy and grain to customers in Central America, Europe and Asia. The global procurement experts bring professional logistics and leading customer service to every transaction, ensuring […]

Verdesian Life Sciences is an emerging plant health and nutrition company focused on a simple mission: help growers maximize the output of their row crops and specialty crops through the use of patented biologicals, plant nutrition, nutrient managers, specialty micronutrients, seed treatments and inoculants. Founded in 2012, the company has quickly grown to become a […]

In Decherd, Tennessee, Woodall Grain Company (WGC) and Woodall Risk Management (WRM) unify the benefits of grain storage and handling, with expert marketing and brokerage strategies. The side-by-side companies support producers across the Southeast in terms of crop merchandising, brokerage, storage, transportation, marketing and education. Formed in 2005 as the product of five generations 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 […]