Wholesum Harvest Launches New Organic Ventures

Wholesum-Harvest-Wholesum-Berries-and-Vitalis-logosAfter identifying opportunities within the organic market, Wholesum Harvest has created a new enterprises with partners in an effort to fill those voids.

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A Partnership with Berry Growers

The first is Wholesum Berries, LLC, which will distribute organic berries on a year-round basis. It’s a joint partnership, owned 50-50 between Wholesum Harvest and organic berry growers in North and South America.

“Organic berry growers approached us because they felt the organic part of their production process wasn’t being properly represented,” says Jessie Gunn, Marketing Vice President for Wholesum Harvest. “It was a bit like looking in the mirror because their vision and mission aligned with ours.”

Wholesum Berries launched with strawberries and blueberries in January of this year; raspberries and blackberries will be included over the next year or two.

“Wholesum Berries has the potential to change the berry industry game ($586 million in sales in 2017) by bringing responsibility, sustainability, and advocacy to organic berry production, and that can happen with fair-trade certification in berries. It will be the innovation of the decade,” Gunn says.

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Adding an Organic Seed Business

“Organic seeds are the start and lifeblood of our plants,” Gunn says. “Our starts are organic, and equally, if not more importantly, they’re grown that way.”

Wholesum Harvest has partnered with organic seed supplier Vitalis Organic Seeds. Like Wholesum Harvest’s fair-trade certification, the partnership is designed to raise the bar for organic growing and give consumers the assurances they want.

“We’re now working together to help push forward the concept of organic seed production via the ‘Vitalis Born, Wholesum Raised’ initiative, a consumer assurance that there hasn’t been any product modification and that products are grown with all the organic assurances consumers want. They’re all organic for serious organic buyers,” Gunn says.

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