Auburndale, Florida: Alpine Fresh, Inc., a grower, packer, and shipper of blueberries headquartered in Miami, Florida, opens blueberry packing shed with Five Star Family Growers of Auburndale, Florida.
On March 28th 2013, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the brand new, state of the art, blueberry-packing facility located in Auburndale, Florida. This facility is the result of a new partnership, sparked by Stacy Spivey, Director of the North American Berry Program for Alpine Fresh, between Alpine Fresh, Inc. and Five Star Family Growers. This new facility, known as Fresh Star, was built on 260 acres of blueberry fields is estimated to house and pack approximately 1 million pounds of Florida grown blueberries this season. This domestic operation will cover and enhance Alpine Fresh’s 12-month blueberry program, supplying their customer’s with high quality product at a time when imported blueberries are not at their peak.
“Alpine Fresh is proud to partner with Randy Knapp and his family on this project,” says Walter Yager, C.E.O. of Alpine Fresh, Inc. “The future of this industry for us is very exciting. It’s one thing to go into something and say you want to do this. When you have this facility and this farm, it’s a major stepping stone for us.”
“Our goal is for this to be a bar-setter with the likes of Alpine as partners,” said Randy Knapp, a Five Star owner and managing member
The event marked the grand opening of the facility as well as the beginning of the season for the Florida blueberry growers as harvesting and receiving began that same day.
Source: Alpine Fresh, Inc.