Time, in terms of fresh produce, is becoming more and more of a construct. As the produce calendar unfolds into a map of places instead of months, seasonality is being reshaped by farmers who follow the sun. We are less beholden to terms like “winter” and “summer” as the fresh clock becomes a globe.
Blazer Wilkinson Gee (BWG) has built out its own geographical clock with a network of growing locations—each serving as a microcosm of the company’s overall practices. Managed by a multigenerational team of like-minded, passionate professionals, BWG’s vertically integrated growing, packing, and shipping network is one you can set your produce watch to. With Florida as the next stop in this continuous cycle, Chief Executive Officer John Wilkinson helps show how a single point fractals outward in a spiral of strategy, taken and applied over and over into a wide world of consistency and dependability.
Melissa De Leon Chavez: With Florida’s strawberry season getting underway, now is the perfect time to look at how the region can represent a microcosm of BWG’s expanding strawberry prowess. How would you say Florida demonstrates BWG’s capabilities as a strong, consistent partner for the buy-side? 
John Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer, Blazer Wilkinson Gee: The Florida strawberry region is producing new, exciting varieties every year, many coming from the University of Florida breeding program. These berries are bigger, better in color, larger, and have better flavor than we have seen before. The genetics are increasingly stronger, something seen firsthand East of the Mississippi River, where Florida supplies strawberries all winter to most retailers. Florida acreage was originally planned to be up for the 2024 winter season prior to the damage left by Hurricane Milton early in the fall. Extensive damage to the strawberry farms has resulted in many fewer acres than the industry originally planned, with expectations of less availability. While situations like this continue to be a challenge, quality is continuously improving with innovation and a commitment to better product and problem solving.
JW: It must be emphasized that strawberry quality from these mid-winter shipping areas is improving every year. From a demand perspective, it is pretty much a requirement of the industry to supply customers the best you can all year ’round. Growing and shipping berries over the winter can be a challenge. Cold weather and wet weather can and do interrupt the supply some winters, while those same variables might mean quality can be sketchy at times. Amid this, Florida and Central Mexico supply the most reliable fruit during this ‘winter-time’ when berries were once not an option, and are doing so with increasingly dependable results.
JW: Last year, BWG began importing blueberries and grapes from South America as we explored further product line expansion. That has already grown from a small start, having quadrupled as of fall and winter of 2024. In addition, we have begun importing citrus and will have a good-sized cherry deal this winter. Now, we are not only a leading year-round grower and shipper of Foxy™ branded strawberries and blueberries, but are marketing South American citrus, grapes, and cherries. We hope that retailers will begin to consider us for many more of their fruit needs!
BWG will continue its berry category leadership role with year-round, high-quality strawberries and a rapidly growing blueberry portfolio, offering a dependable lineup of global supply to support long-term programs.
JW: BWG has been distributing since 1996 and growing and shipping strawberries since 2003. We ship strawberries 365 days a year, with farms in Florida harvesting from late fall through spring. Central Mexico harvests in the winter, with Baja California harvesting in the winter through spring. We also have our largest berry supply from Santa Maria, California, from spring through the winter months and Salinas, California, during that same time.
Today, Foxy berries are sold all over the United States, from the Northeast to the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, Midwest, Texas, and the West Coast. A fair amount of our berries are even exported to Asia and Mexico.
JW: It is thanks to our steadfast commitment to quality and honest approach to doing business that BWG is well-respected throughout the industry. As always, quality and reliability of the Foxy brand are the highlights of our company, and we will continue that tradition with all of our new products, only growing our reputation of growing, packing, and shipping product of the highest quality. Creating partnerships with people and companies with integrity and our same high standards is what has gotten us to this point and is what we will continue to do in order to grow and further develop our business.
“These berries are bigger, better in color, and have better flavor than much of what we have seen before. The genetics are increasingly stronger.”
-John Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer, Blazer Wilkinson Gee
Still a family-run company today, with the same commitments on which it was founded almost 30 years ago, Blazer Wilkinson Gee has clearly demonstrated the benefits of directly managing every aspect of its operations, showcasing true dedication to helping partners adapt to the needs of today’s marketplace, regardless of where or when they might be.
Even if it means taking control of the ticking clock of the seasons themselves. 
