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Crunch time

Costco’s baby carrot supplier grows up to be one of the largest carrot producers in the industry

by JULIE KENDRICK

Two brothers, Rod and Bob Grimm, ran a roadside produce stand in the early 1960s in Anaheim, California. As their small business grew, the brothers incorporated and, in 1969, began doing business as Grimmway Farms. They eventually moved operations to Kern County, California, a vegetable-producing region that, according to the University of California Davis, is responsible for more than 80% of the United States’ carrot harvests each year.

And then—big news in an industry not known for fads—everyone suddenly became interested in tiny carrots. In the 1990s, baby carrots began turning up everywhere from crudité platters to school lunches. Grimmway Farms made acquisitions that established it as the world’s largest producer of carrots.

Deep roots

Grimmway Farms has come a long way from those produce stand beginnings, but its roots are still deep in the California soil. Their team of multi-generational farmers is passionate about what they do and incredibly proud of providing nutritious, vitamin-packed produce to their customers.

“To be a farmer, you have to be an optimist,” says Jeff Huckaby, the organization’s president and CEO. “I’m proud to be the fourth generation in a line of ‘farmer-optimists’ in my family, all of whom have dedicated their lives to agriculture. I’ve always had a passion for this business, but never more so than today. We proudly keep our commitment to the principles planted by our founders, and we all remain focused on the three P’s—people, products and planet—which remain at the heart of our business.”

Land caretakers

Sustainability initiatives at Grimmway include drought management, carbon mitigation, soil health, energy conservation, crop rotation and other regenerative farming practices. Some recent examples: In 2020, the organization put 29.5 thousand metric tonnes (65 million pounds) of carbon into the soil with carrot top green waste. Also that year, Grimmway began using reusable plastic containers, saving 590 metric tons (1.3 million pounds) of paper waste and 272 metric tonnes (600,000 pounds) of paraffin wax waste from going to landfills.

Eric Proffitt, Grimmway’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, explains, “We’re caretakers of the land that has nourished our growth for more than 50 years.”