With a family legacy of farming, Reiter Affiliated Companies (RAC) is proud to be the largest fresh, multi-berry producer in the world and the leading supplier of fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries in all of North America. The Reiter family began farming in the San Francisco Bay Peninsula and by the turn of the century had migrated south into Watsonville and the Santa Clara Valley where Joseph “Ed” Reiter and R.F. “Dick” Driscoll began growing their own Sweetbriar strawberries variety. After World War II, they farmed under their respective companies of Reiter and Driscoll’s and began marketing strawberries under the Driscoll Strawberry Associates label with other family and associated suppliers.
Throughout the early years, Ed’s son Joseph chartered new agricultural territories up until the late 1970’s when Garland and Miles Reiter, grandsons of Ed Reiter, began working in the family business, developing operations and planting new varieties in California. The brother’s continued to not only preserve their family legacy of farming but grew the company to be one of the nation’s leaders in the agricultural industry. Since that time, the brothers have increased the Reiter Affiliated Companies (RAC) investment, farming and pioneering new plant varieties, developing new geographies and offering new commodities to consumers. With this innovative approach to farming and agriculture, RAC’s business has doubled every five years over the past twenty five, supported by a strategy of sustained growth. Newly formed partnerships and unique grower empowered revenue share programs drove business development geographically in the early 1990’s to RAC’s broader footprint today.
At the heart of the success of this multi-generational farming company, has been the ownership’s fervent belief in their fundamental values and guiding principles. Honesty, Fairness and Respect are framed along the corridors of every office, from the smallest ranch operation in remote locations to their corporate offices in Oxnard. These values have been integrated into every aspect of the company, defining a clear path for integrity to flow throughout the organization. From the humble fields by which their family legacy was born, to the people that represent the Reiter Affiliated Companies today, the successful partnership of two cousins led to a family legacy of farming spanning more than a century long, with geographies that exist today throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Northern Africa, Peru, and Canada.