Driscoll's has formally agreed to purchase Haygrove Africa Trading, a wholly owned subsidiary of Haygrove Heaven. Given the changing demands of the global blueberry market, this will enable Driscoll's to offer a complete and integrated blueberry business to Haygrove Africa's network of growers throughout the South African region. The sale agreement was signed on July 1.

Haygrove Africa has focused primarily on the development and supply of blueberries in sub-Saharan Africa exclusively under the Driscoll label for the past six years. Haygrove has built a healthy and vibrant business by creating a dedicated team to service a network of highly aligned growers.

The acquisition of Driscoll will provide it with full control over the strategic agenda for South Africa, direct oversight of grower relationships and the ability to leverage existing blueberry variety licenses with its R&D expertise to ensure effective implementation.

“This acquisition is an exciting opportunity,” said Garland Reiter, Jr., vice president of Global Blueberry Leadership. “By directly setting the strategic vision regarding high-quality sub-Saharan African blueberries in our supply portfolio, we can secure genetic advantages and support long-term investments that drive quality and availability, especially for our European market.”