Driscoll's Expands its Organic Nursery Plant Production
WATSONVILLE, CA - Driscoll’s has announced a broad expansion of its organic nursery plant production, as well as a renewed commitment to provide all of Driscoll’s USDA certified organic growers with organic nursery plants.
“Since our first sales of organic berries in the late 1980’s, we’ve seen tremendous growth in our organic business due to increasing consumer market demand. We are committed to fully deliver on the spirit of the organic program across all our berries and see this process as a journey to an exciting future,” said Soren Bjorn, Executive Vice President of Driscoll’s.
Growing certified organic starter plants from the nursery to provide organic growers healthy, pest and disease free plants is a priority for Driscoll’s, the company says. Driscoll’s has developed and expanded an organic nursery program certified by CCOF for the last seven years. According to the company’s website, Driscoll’s currently maintains the only organic strawberry nursery certified by CCOF, the nation’s oldest and largest third-party certifying agency. The company says there are also no other known commercial organic strawberry start nurseries certified under the USDA National Organic Program.
Cathy Calfo, Executive Director and CEO of CCOF, Inc., commented, “In the nearly 20 years that CCOF has worked with Driscoll’s, they have truly lead the organic sector—expanding organic acreage, investing in new organic growers and supporting employee participation in organic standards development, including on the National Organics Standards Board. Driscoll’s commitment to developing organic nursery plants marks welcome leadership in the organic sector.”
Driscoll’s says it is proud of the seven years invested in researching the viability of organically grown strawberry plants, and that this accomplishment speaks to the long-term commitment for rolling out the program across all berries in the coming years. Today, approximately 10 percent of the company’s organic strawberry production in Watsonville and Salinas comes from certified organic plants.
