Key Partners

Driscoll Strawberry Associates

Driscoll’s has been family owned and run for over 100 years. The Driscoll’s story began in 1904, when Joseph “Ed” Reiter and R.O. Driscoll began producing flavorful Sweet Briar strawberries in California’s Pajaro Valley. More than a century later, the Driscoll’s family berry tradition endures. Today Miles Reiter, former berry farmer and grandson of Joseph “Ed” Reiter, is at the helm of Driscoll’s.

First and foremost, Driscoll's mission is to continually delight berry consumers. All their efforts revolve around providing a delightful eating experience with every Driscoll’s berry.

Driscoll’s offers fresh organically and conventionally grown strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. They naturally cross-pollinate plants with the most desirable flavor, appearance and freshness characteristics to develop our their berry varieties, which are patented and made available only to the independent farmers around the world that grow Driscoll’s berries. Driscoll's commitment to research and development, and to natural, time-honored plant breeding methods, means that their patented berry varieties naturally offer a delightful eating experience in terms of flavor, color, texture, shape and aroma. At Driscoll’s they are the berry experts, and have been for over a century.

Driscoll’s is headquartered in the United States in Watsonville, which is located in the Pajaro Valley of California, about 95 miles south of San Francisco. Fertile soil on the valley floor, a long growing season which runs from March to November, and access to ample irrigation makes this one of the best berry farming regions in North America.

In order to meet consumers’ demand for delicious berries all year long, Driscoll’s fresh berries are grown on family farms in some of the world’s premier growing regions in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. These farmers share a commitment to growing the world’s best berries and to protecting their family land to hand down to future generations.

Driscoll’s Values are to operate with Passion, Humility and Trustworthiness. Everyone who works for Driscoll’s is part of a caring community. Driscoll's are proud of what they do and it shows in how they treat their colleagues in the fresh produce industry, their communities and our environment.

Alconeras

Alconeras is a family owned business that was founded 45 years ago by the 3 Garrido brothers. They were one of the pioneers of soft fruit growing in the Huelva province, that is located in the South-West corner of Spain. Due to the sandy soil and the longest light hours in Europe, this is thought to be one the best growing areas in Europe. Production of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries is spread over numerous farms located close to the central cooler in the village of Moguer.

The Alconeras Nurseries are located in Valladolid, where both strawberry and raspberry material are produced for planting in the South of Spain and Morocco. The beginning of Alconeras’ success story lies here with only the finest plant material reaching the Alconeras farms. It is here also that the Driscoll's plants are raised from American stock.

Alconera Maroc was founded 20 years ago and is located in the North in the area of Moulay Bousselham. Once again, this is an idyllic location due to the sandy soil and long light hours. The production area is located 1.5 hours from the “Gateway to Africa”, the Port of Tangiers where the fruit depart on route to Europe. A new production area is being developed in Agadir that is in the South. It is also thought that this is an idyllic production area due to the climatic characteristics and adaptation of the Driscoll's varieties.

The objective is to try to grow the berries as close to the final customer as possible, to ensure that the fruit arrive as fresh and to the best quality possible to the consumer.

Extensive new variety trials take place every year both in Spain and Morocco in the Trials Plots. Fully dedicated teams are consciously looking for that new variety in order to delight the final customer and also produce a variety that is profitable for the Grower. A good tasting berry is always at the top of the priority list.

Alconeras’ key to growth has been as a result of having a long term vision, a very clear quality focus, close relationship with their customers and differentiation in product mainly due to the production of the Driscoll's varieties.