Plant City, Florida-based Wish Farms is expecting a robust Southeast blackberry season.
“We aligned ourselves with exceptional growers that allow us to provide great tasting varieties like PrimeArk 45, Osage, Ouachita and Natchez among others,” said Jose Saca, cane berry director for Wish Farms, an international grower and year-round marketer of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. “We are also encouraged by the steady growth in consumer demand. If there are no major weather events, we can expect a good production year with early volume estimates 15-20 percent higher over last season.”
The blackberry season is expected to align well with the high-quality blueberry crop coming from the region. Weather in Georgia and North Carolina has been ideal leading up to the season. Plants have had favorable chill hours. Presently, there have been no major weather events or late winter injuries that lead to bud or fruit damage. Peak volume is expected around the second to third week of June, with the season concluding in September.
Saca has been focused on growth in the blackberry category since 2016.
In 2018, Wish Farms completed a 7,500-s.f. cooler in Shelby, North Carolina, to manage its blackberry program in the region. All Wish Farms blackberries in this region will ship from this facility after thorough quality control inspections.
“This southeastern blackberry program is essential to our mission of providing the best tasting berries,” said James Peterson, Wish Farms VP of sales. “We look forward to working with our retail partners this June and throughout the summer to support blackberry ads.”
Wish Farms, founded in 1922 and third-generation owned, is a year-round supplier of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, growing both conventional and organic varieties. Nationally recognized for innovation, Wish Farms uses a patented tool for traceability and to ensure quality by tying customer feedback to specific information from each day’s harvest called “How’s My Picking?”
