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Grimmway Farms is the largest grower, producer, and shipper of
carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nat ...
s in the world. It is headquartered in
Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
, and has been family owned and operated for more than 40 years. Grimmway’s divisions include Grimmway Farms, Cal-Organic Farms, Bunny-Luv, and Bunny-Luv Organic. Its operations are in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, and Washington. The company has been recognized for popularizing the baby carrot.


History

Grimmway Farms was established in the mid-1960s when brothers Rodney Grimm and Robert Grimm started farming five acres of
sweet corn Sweet corn (''Zea mays'' convar. ''saccharata'' var. ''rugosa''), also called sugar corn and pole corn, is a variety of maize grown for human consumption with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive muta ...
on their grandfather's chicken farm in
Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...
. Through the years, they added other crops, which they sold alongside the corn in small family-run roadside produce stands. In the early 1980s, after the concept of baby carrots was successfully test-marketed by another company in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, the Grimm brothers relocated to
Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...
and began processing baby carrots. By 2002, the company was able to process millions of pounds of baby carrots a day. In 1991, Grimmway Farms began expanding into different areas of agriculture with the acquisition of Belridge Farms (citrus). The expansion continued with the acquisition of Mike Yurosek & Sons, another carrot processing company, in the early 1990s. In 1998, company president Rodney Grimm died of cancer at the age of 51. Robert Grimm then took over as company president. During his tenure, Grimmway Farms began buying other companies. By 2000, it had reportedly grown into a $350-million operation with five plants in the United States, and products shipping to more than 20 countries. In 2001, Grimmway Farms purchased King Pak Farms, a potato growing, packing, and shipping operation in Edison, California. On March 17, 2006, Robert Grimm died of a heart attack. He had served on the association's board since 1988. Following Robert Grimm's death, Jeff Meger, the Grimm's nephew and company vice president, took over as president of Grimmway Farms. In 2016, he was replaced by Jeff Huckaby. The sons of founders Rod and Bob Grimm work for the company as well. Brandon Grimm, son of Bob Grimm, started at Grimmway in 2006 and is currently the General Manager of Organic Operations.


Products

Grimmway Farms handles 10 million pounds of carrots a day and grows over 40,000 acres of carrots. Other Grimmway products include carrot juice concentrate and carrot juice based products used in soup bases, vegetable blends, condiment formulation, and flavor additives. Grimmway’s processed carrots are kosher certified (when applicable). Cal-Organic Farms, Grimmway Farms’ organic division, produces sixty-five year-round crops including: carrots, leeks, broccoli, and lettuce. Organic products are certified through CCOF, a recognized third-party approved by the USDA.


References

{{Reflist Farms in California Companies based in Kern County, California