Colorful Harvest Expands Year Round Berry Program & Sales Team

Salinas, CA – Colorful Harvest's year round berry operation continues to expand with the addition of over 500 new acres overall, 10 new ranches overall, and a new exclusive cooler operation in South Florida. The Colorful Harvest additions in Florida compliment the continued expansion of its Mexico strawberry program and their increased volume of Mexico blackberries. Doug Ranno, Colorful Harvest's COO stated, "This will help assure our consistent supply of fresh, premium quality Colorful Harvest berries over the winter and well into the spring. Our new winter berry expansion will transition perfectly into our new California strawberry ranches in Santa Maria and Salinas."

The new 50,000 square foot cooler operation in Plant City, Florida, will provide Colorful Harvest growers and customers high quality multiple product cooling, service, and loading, all in one location. The company's Florida operations will include, for the first time, a veg program that will include seasonal red corn, green beans and squash. The veg program will expand Colorful Harvest's product line in the south, and is part of a crop rotation strategy to enhance the soil and promote higher yields. Colorful Harvest is rolling out their Total Quality Assurance (TQA) program in these new farms and facilities, to maintain the high standards observed on their other operations. "Colorful Harvest has grown into a company known for having one of the most consistent and successful year round strawberry programs in the industry due to our team's dedication and commitment to a common goal of taste, quality, nutrition and color," said Ranno.

The company's TQA program in Mexico, and the investment in their own cooler in central Mexico (ColorMex), has helped the company's winter strawberry program achieve a steady increase year over year for the past 5 years. Colorful Harvest will now build on that success by introducing a new expanded blackberry operation in Central Mexico. The operation is expected to begin shipping fruit during the PMA Fresh Summit week in October.

Steven Johnson Joins Sales Team

Colorful Harvest is proud to announce that long time produce industry veteran Steven Johnston has become the latest addition to their sales team, as a Business Development Manager specializing in strawberry and blueberry sales. Johnston, a 5th generation native of Salinas, California, has a produce industry leadership career that spans over 38 years in a wide variety of commodities including berries and vegetables. Johnston comes to Colorful Harvest with experience gained from companies like Blazer Wilkinson, Pacific Gold Farms, JR. Norton and Bruce Church Company.

"We pleased to have the benefit of Steven's experience in fresh produce sales to help continue the growth of our year round berry program," said Doug Ranno, Colorful Harvest's COO. "Adding someone with Steven's proven track record to our berry marketing program will help insure that sales keep pace with our increasing volume of year round berries and continue to provide solid market information to our customers and growers 52 weeks out of the year."

Colorful Harvest grows premium quality strawberries year round, and is well known for its heirloom style, unusually colorful vegetables including Ruby JewelTM sweet red corn, Rainbow Crunch CarrotsTM, tri-color cauliflower (purple, orange and green), melons and more.

Source: Colorful Harvest