Canada has long been part of Driscoll’s story. For decades, Canadian consumers have reached for Driscoll’s berries making the brand a familiar presence in produce aisles from coast-to-coast. What has changed is not Driscoll’s presence in Canada, but now a deliberate and focused strategy to deepen trust with consumers, customers and growers and to scale with purpose.

As brands, companies and retailers come together beginning April 28th, for the largest fresh fruit and vegetables trade show in Canada, Driscoll’s participates with the belief that brand building, retail execution, grower investment and trade policy are interconnected and must be addressed as part of the same commercial system.

That ambition reflects a broader reality shaping Canada’s food system today. Fruit and vegetable consumption is formally tracked by the federal government as a national quality-of-life indicator, underscoring the central role fresh produce plays in Canadian diets and public health priorities. Within that landscape, berries are among the most economically significant and widely consumed fruit categories in the country. For Driscoll’s, this makes Canada a tailwind for growth, not a market that needs to be persuaded.

Garland Reiter, Jr., chief commercial officer for Driscoll’s, brings a perspective shaped by both heritage and hands-on experience across the Driscoll’s system and global markets. His objective for Canada is clear: delivering a dependable, year-round berry patch that gives consumers consistent access to strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries every week, every season.

“More exciting than anything else is the consumer’s desire and willingness to pay for an elevated product,” Reiter said. “We want to stay ahead of the consumer trends we’re seeing at retail, whether that’s local-for-local, organics, premium offerings with Sweetest Batch or seasonal occasion-based offering like heart-shaped clamshells for Valentine’s Day.”

Driscoll’s proprietary varieties deliver on that promise. Decades of investment in genetics and plant science have produced berries that consistently deliver on flavor, appearance and shelf life, flowing directly from Driscoll’s mission to continually delight the berry consumer through the alignment of customers and independent growers.

Local berry production is also becoming a critical pillar of Driscoll’s Canadian strategy. The company has launched a paper-based packaging  program with clear Grown in Canada branding effort. The vision is to be 100 percent paper-based by 2029. 

Due to climate realities, a significant majority of fruit consumed in Canada is imported, with the United States serving as the largest source for many categories. Local production can play a strategic role alongside cross-border supply, strengthening resilience and meeting consumer expectations for origin transparency.

Retail partnership is a core capability for Driscoll’s. When executed well, the berry category is a powerful driver of the entire consumer shopper basket. Driscoll’s works with Canadian retail partners to place berries front-and-center, build out the full berry patch branded experience and prioritize refrigerated display to protect quality and extend shelf life. Digital marketing and merchandising investments help educate shoppers and build brand loyalty. For retailers, the value proposition is straightforward: a single, reliable source for the full berry assortment, backed by consistent quality and category expertise.

Sound trade policy is the foundation that makes all of this possible, for companies, for consumers and for the countries on both sides of the border. Driscoll’s supports the renewal and strengthening of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which has helped create a contiguous, complementary North American market built on predictability, fairness and mutual benefit. Maintaining that framework is not only a trade objective; it is a food system priority that touches every link in the supply chain.

That is why Driscoll’s is especially grateful to CPMA for bringing policymakers, parliamentarians and senior officials directly into conversation with industry at the Fresh Future Conference. When the people who grow and move food have direct access to the people who shape the rules around it, better outcomes follow for everyone.

Driscoll’s looks forward to connecting with partners, customers and policymakers at the Fresh Future Conference on June 9 in Ottawa.