12 | Sourced | march 2022 — june 2022
A TRUE PARTNERSHIP
TM
“It is a sincere pleasure to work with Driscoll’s. We understand each other’s goals and work together to achieve them. Driscoll’s is to delight the consumer. AMC’s is to add value through service, versatility, and knowledge through distribution. Many of our values are similar - be humble, always look for ways to improve, be passionate about produce. We also both have an innate desire to see our teams succeed. We are extremely proud to have Driscoll’s as our partner.”
Damon Marano,
Chief Business Officer Anthony Marano Company
Research and Development Driscoll’s is a pioneer of berry flavor and innovation with a dedicated research and development team focused on breeding proprietary varieties exclusively for their network of independent growers. Driscoll’s dedicated team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant health scientists, and entomologists, work together to create:
sweet, fresh strawberries
raspberries that are
blackberries that burst in
plump blueberries that are
that are firm, but not too
beautiful and juicy
your mouth with juicy,
flavorful, but not tart
crunchy
Driscoll’s uses traditional breeding practices, such as cross-pollination, to ensure the highest quality for consumers. Cross-pollination is the transfer of pollen from one plant to another. In the same way bees move pollen from plant to plant, Driscoll’s team of breeders move the male pollen from one plant to the female part of a different plant (the pistil). Cross-pollination is important because it allows two separate plants with desirable characteristics to parent potentially even better children plants. If one blueberry plant is robust and capable of surviving in various climates, and another blueberry plant has fruit that is especially delicious, the breeders can take the pollen from the first plant and add it to the second plant. The result is that some of the child plants will have the favorable characteristics of both parent plants.
sweet flavor
This process allows Driscoll’s to discover new varieties of berries using the same natural breeding techniques employed by farmers for thousands of years. By using this natural method, Driscoll’s never needs to irradiate or genetically modify their plants. Matching berries for natural cross-pollination is a very big process. In any given year, Driscoll’s chooses the best plants and makes about 700 crosses. Each cross results in anywhere from 40 to nearly 300 seedlings. That means that in a single year, Driscoll’s has over 100,000 seedlings that could potentially become a new commercial variety in the future.
1 year
700
crosses
40 to nearly 300 seedlings
100,000 seedlings / yr
