South Bay, Fla. – Branch: A Family of Farms, the country’s largest distributor of sweet corn, is thankful that their crops were not impacted by Hurricane Irma and they are excited about the many new varieties that they will be offering as they enter into another leaf season.
“We are extremely grateful to have escaped major damage unlike others who were impacted by the hurricane,” says Brett Bergmann, president of Branch. “As we look ahead to our leafy vegetable season, we expect to see increased demand due to excitement around our regional offerings, as well as advantages for our customer’s in freshness and overall delivered cost."
Branch continues to invest in trialing new varieties to find better offerings each season, and will have multiple new varieties rolling out for the 2017 – 2018 season. The primary goal of the research and development of these varieties is to continue to improve upon the eating experience for the consumer, as well as improve upon how varieties perform in the Southern climates. They are especially excited about a new Endive variety that is in production this season. When trialed, they discovered that this variety has shown better tolerance to heat and humid growing conditions, allowing their farmers to grow and pack a more superior product. Branch is also experimenting with a new pack on Cilantro, Curly and Plain Parsley. They plan to trial this in 2-3 markets this season and anticipate a wider expansion in the 2018 – 2019 season.
This winter’s forecast is predicted to be much cooler, which are ideal growing conditions for leafy greens in Florida. They are forecasting a strong season due to overall crop outlook as well as the improvements in varietal development and increased interest in local programs.
Branch Farms grows a full assortment of leafy vegetable including; escarole, endive, Chinese cabbage, green and red leaf lettuce, kale, butter, Bibb, Boston, romaine lettuce, cilantro and also Italian and plain parsley.
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About Branch
Since 1957, our founding principles still drive us at Branch: integrity, quality, service – a commitment to our industry and the sustainability of our environment. As a family owned and operated business, we are a premier grower, packer, shipper of sweet corn in the United States also offering our customers green beans, leafy greens, radishes and celery.
Source: Branch
