Thought Leadership In Berries

As a growing category, leading berry producers remain focused on ensuring their crops are viable and ready as spring continues to ascend. Berries have continued to be a go-to for households as the produce adds a freshness to dishes or can be a convenient snacking solution. Leaders in the berry merchandising category strive to ensure their retail partners are provided with high-quality products year-round.

Naturipe Farms

“In the first quarter, we focused on expanding our presence in the premium products area, which included hiring a new Director of Premium Products,” said CarrieAnn Arias, VP of Marketing for Naturipe Farms. “We also celebrated our sixth FeBLUEary campaign to highlight our South American blueberries and, at the end of Q1, we kicked off our domestic blueberry season with a great crop of Naturipe Blueberries from our growers in the Southeast. We debuted our innovative Mighty Reds Strawberries, which are the largest strawberries our growers hand-pick from our fields. We are always focused on developing new proprietary varieties that introduce exciting innovations in terms of ideal size, flavor, texture and other characteristics, with more exciting news to come.”

“We hired John Johnston as our new Director of Premium Products to help lead the team as we develop our premium lines and grow that side of our business,” said Arias. “We will always pride ourselves on our commitment to our grower-owners and their dedication to leading Naturipe in the best direction for our growers, our customers and ultimately the consumers.”

“Naturipe also leads in sustainability because it’s the right thing to do and we know it is also a priority for our customers and their shoppers,” Arias said. “Whether we’re reducing the use of plastics in our clamshells, conserving water and other valuable resources in our fields, or overall reducing waste, we are dedicated to sustainably growing delicious berries now and into the future.”

“We’re always engaging with our consumers to understand what products they’re craving—whether that be through consumer research or on our social media channels. For our retailers, we are always working to keep our relationships solid by maintaining an open line of communication and working through any supply or demand issues to make sure our customers have the berries they need on their shelves. We’re also constantly innovating and introducing new proprietary varieties that deliver the high-quality people associate with Naturipe and offer the best in texture, size, color and flavor. For example, we recently released our limited edition Mighty Reds Strawberries, and soon we’ll be making available our Southern Grace Blackberries and a few other exciting berry varieties,” she continued.

“Our retailer partners have expressed a desire for a premium berry, specifically one that will surprise and delight the consumer. How is this feedback influencing the company’s product development? Focus on developing uniquely impressive varieties through our breeding programs that are and will be proprietary to Naturipe Farms. Delivering a sensational experience to the consumer, as well as the opportunity for our owners to have another source of revenue to sustain our family operations in all of our locally grown and internationally grown producing areas.”

California Giant

As a leading producer of berries, California Giant expressed the company had a great start to the year and expects it will continue for the rest of 2023.

“We had an incredible Florida strawberry season!” said Tom Smith, Director of Sales. “Quality was great all season, and due to rain in California we were able to extend the season longer than we typically do, picking fresh until April 15. The same is true for Central Mexico; overall very good quality throughout the season and we were able to push their fresh season deeper into the year due to weather in California and continued demand exceeding supply for fresh berries most of Q1.”

“Bill Moncovich and his partners founded California Giant 40 years ago on the premise of supplying quality berries,” Smith said. “To this day, we lead with quality and our goal is to consistently deliver the highest quality supply of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries to our customers year-round. We are a premium quality berry grower-shipper that’s committed to supplying our customers and exceeding expectations from the consumers. When you see California Giant Berry Farms label, you know it’s going to be good!”

“Our trade partners know that they can trust our brand for consistent quality supply throughout the year,” he continued. “We are always working on developing new varieties that will support our grower’s production needs as well as our customer and consumer desires for ideal appearance, delicious flavor and craveable berries.”

Driscoll’s

As one of the major players in the category, Driscoll’s has been a family-owned and operated berry producer for more than 100 years.

While reflecting the company’s mission to offer consumers only the "finest" berries, the company recently launched two digital projects: its Berry Patch Sensory Wheels and a collection of “Specialty Strawberry Mini Sets.” Driscoll’s project launches were intended to support the producer’s strawberry line in line with the return of the company’s seasonal premium offering.

“We knew we wanted to tap into both the latest trends and our expertise in berries to successfully launch our premium berries through our owned channels and educate consumers about the berries’ flavor profiles in a fun and engaging way,” said Evelyn Martinez, Digital Marketing Specialist. “We’re excited to see how consumers interact with the Specialty Strawberry Mini Sets content on our channels, as the new digital assets are all meant to be shared with friends and family.”