Who We Are
Our Story
For more than 100 years our family's passion has been growing outstanding berries. Today, Driscoll's driving mission—to continually delight consumers with sweet, juicy, delicious berries—is the soul of the Driscoll's philosophy.
It is our company's founding principle going back to 1944 when a small group of Watsonville farmers started with a bold idea. That idea—The Strawberry Institute of California—would eventually become Driscoll's and personify our belief that developing better berry varieties would let us grow better berries.
Family owned and operated since its founding, Driscoll's continues to produce a wide variety of organic and conventionally grown berries throughout the world, all in carefully chosen locations. Driscoll's strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are known around the world for their succulent taste, vibrant color, and consistent quality—The Finest Berries in the World®.
Farmers
The Driscoll's extended family, which includes our employees, our family of growers and the retail, foodservice and wholesale customers that sell our berries, share one common purpose: To offer you the very best berries. We continually strive to develop, produce and deliver the perfect berry every day in everything we do.
Since 1944, Driscoll's has expanded to more than 300 independent farmers in six states and eight countries. Driscoll's growers preserve and uphold our family's passion for excellence by growing the legendry berries year round in perfect conditions. The independent farmers who grow Driscoll's berries embrace our core values of Passion, Humility and Trustworthiness.
They know cultivating berries requires patience and an unparalleled commitment to perfection. That commitment extends to our use of modern growing techniques and research as well as our obsession with food safety. Our family knows the importance of a delightful eating experience, so no matter where our berries are grown, they always meet our rigorous quality and food safety standards.
Community
Driscoll's has long been committed to making a difference in the communities where we live and work. We also empower, encourage and support our employees and farmers in the activities that they believe will improve the communities in which they live.
We contribute funds in communities where we operate to provide scholarships, medical care programs and other services that better the lives of our employees, our independent farmers, their employees and their families.
Our Naturally Unique Plants
Driscoll's plants are so unique, we've trademarked and patented them. It may be hard to believe we'd take such measures to protect our plants and our products, but with decades spent perfecting our berries we wouldn't have it any other way—to us a strawberry isn't just a strawberry.
Since Driscoll's founding, our family passion has been to continually improve berry varieties. It is part of our belief that developing better berry varieties lets us grow better berries.
Natural Cross Pollination
We cross-pollinate berries in a way that's similar to how plants cross-pollinate in nature to develop our superior, proprietary varieties.
Through years of meticulous care and research, we've bred our berries to grow quickly, require less water yet still be very sweet, have less pulp, and maintain that signature Driscoll shape. We naturally breed berry plants to be more resistant to diseases and pests while meeting our quality standards for flavor and size. Of course, we take the same high standard with growing our organic berries using no irradiation, no genetic modifications, just natural breeding and cross-pollination. None of our berries are genetically modified or subjected to irradiation.
Developing unique, consistently better tasting berries is no simple matter. Each year Driscoll's looks at tens of thousands of seedlings to find just a handful that merit further testing.
It is at least a seven-year process to produce a seedling that's fit for commercial use. Each year new berry plants are tested under different growing conditions to see which ones have the right stuff to be a new Driscoll's variety and which ones just won't make it. It takes a truly special, unique berry to become a patented Driscoll's berry.
These new varieties will be released with the confidence that comes from experience and painstaking attention to detail and consumers will enjoy the next generation of our unique berry varieties—The Finest Berries in the World®.