Wish Farms is a Plant City,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

based supplier of

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

blueberries Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

, raspberries and blackberries. The company was established in 1922.

History

In 1922, Harris Wishnatzki teamed up with Daniel Nathel to establish Wishnatzki & Nathel, a wholesale business selling fruits and vegetables. Harris began to establish buying and selling in Plant City, Florida in 1929, leading to a permanent move in 1937. After Harris' death in 1955, his sons Joe and Lester took company leadership. Gary Wishnatzki became the President of Wishnatzki & Nathel in 1990. In 2001, the Wishnatzki and Nathel families split the company with the Wishnatzki’s overseeing the Florida division, which took the name Wishnatzki Farms. Wishnatzki Farms started producing and selling frozen strawberries in 2002. The company was the first to offer organic strawberries grown in the state of Florida on a commercial scale in 2005. By 2010, Wishnatzki Farms rebranded itself as Wish Farms with the mascot “Misty the Garden Pixie”. Since 2010, Wish Farms has been the official sponsor of the Florida Strawberry Festival’s Soundstage, an event stage for concert performances. In efforts to solve the farm labor shortage, Gary Wishnatzki founded Harvest CROO Robotics in 2013, developing an automated strawberry picker.

Products

Wish Farms is a supplier of conventional and

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

varieties of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Wish Farms grows berries across North and South America including

, Georgia,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. It began growing organic strawberries in Duette in 2005, and produced 90 percent of Florida’s organic strawberry production in 2018. In 2014, they expanded their organic supply to a year-round commodity by producing organic strawberries in California and organic blueberries in Florida. The company opened an organic blueberry operation in 2016 under the name Misty Organics in Alturas, Florida. It started production in 2018 whereby the berries were grown in containers under cover, to allow for a harvest window between the South American and Southeastern United States harvests.

References

{{reflist Food and drink companies based in Florida 1922 establishments in Florida Food and drink companies established in 1922 American companies established in 1922 Food manufacturers of the United States Plant City, Florida