DPI Specialty Foods, Inc. founded in 1989, is controlled by the Irish Dairy Board. DPI Specialty Foods is a leading wholesale food distributor that delivers gourmet, organic, and ethnic food, and other specialized products. DPI Specialty Foods company offers more than 55,000 items through its five main distribution centers and delivers goods to customers throughout the US. It serves food service operators, retail grocers, and customers in other food sectors. In addition to supplying food and other goods, DPI offers its customers technology support, marketing, merchandising, and sales services.

American Fruit & Produce Corporation supplies everything from apples to zucchini to US wholesale, foodservice, and retail customers. AFP also exports fresh fruits and vegetables from Florida ports to locations in the Americas and Europe. It is the largest US supplier of fresh produce to Caribbean countries. Hugo Acosta and his uncle, Delio Medina, opened their small produce outfit in Miami in 1983. The company has grown to include some 300,000 square feet of building situated on 32 acres in South Florida. American Fruit & Produce is still owned and operated by the its founders and their families.

The Ashers really love to smother things in chocolate. Asher's Chocolates manufactures chocolate and confections, including chocolate-covered pretzels potato chips, and graham crackers. Asher's Chocolates, Inc. also produces boxed assortments (including truffles, chews, nuts, cordials, and creams) and gift baskets, fudge, pecan-caramel patties, almond bark, and sugar-free assortments. Asher's Chocolates sells its products through its own retail store (in Souderton, Pennsylvania -- near Philadelphia), by mail- order, and online on its Web site. The family-owned company was founded in 1892.

LoBue Bros. offers harvesting, packing, and marketing services to growers of California oranges. LoBue Bros company offers its customers several citrus varieties, including Navels and Valencias. The independent commercial packer, which was founded in 1934 with a modest 10-acre orchard, is one of the largest of its kind in the industry. LoBue Bros. -- named after Fred, Mario, and Joe Sr. -- began as a broker of cherries, prickly pears, and other produce. LoBue Bros company is still operated by descendants of the LoBue family.

The late Roberto Alvarez founded the family-owned business in 1950. Coast Citrus Distributors is a leading wholesale distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables in Mexico and the US. Coast Citrus Distributors company supplies a variety of produce, including bananas, lettuce, limes, and potatoes, to retail grocers and other food customers under such brands as Coast Citrus, Coast Tropical, and Olympic Fruit and Vegetable. Coast Citrus Distributors operates a half dozen distribution facilities in California, Texas, and Florida. It also has about five locations in Mexico.

In 1971 Sanford Winery and Vineyards discovered an overlooked, grape-growing treasure in the Santa Rita Hills. Recognizing a magical combination of climate and soil conditions much like those in France's famed Burgundy province, Sanford planted the area's first Pinot Noir in its Sanford & Benedict vineyard.Pinot Noir has thrived in the Santa Rita Hills ever since, and so has Sanford Winery. The pioneering winery's Pinot Noir ranks among the best and most distinctive in the world. And Sanford's leadership helped put Santa Barbara and the Santa Rita Hills on the map of the world's great wine regions. Certified as an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 2001, today the area is renowned for its Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir. The Santa Rita Hills AVA is 100 square miles of heaven for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and Sanford's estate vineyards - Rancho La Rinconada and Sanford & Benedict - lie within it. Sanford relies exclusively on these vineyards for its luscious, signature Pinots.The area owes its magic to an unusual east-west mountain valley that runs from the vineyards to the Pacific Ocean. This passage allows a meteorological ebb-and-flow between the mountains and the sea that is ideal for cool-climate varietals.

For those who want the buzz without the bitter taste, there is Halewood International, maker of sugary, bubbly alcoholic drinks. In the UK Halewood International annually sells some 40 million bottles of Lambrini, a fizzy pear drink described by one retailer as the illicit drink of British housewives. In its bottling plant near Liverpool, Halewood churns out a variety of alcopops, designed to be drunk by twentysomethings who don't like the taste of alcohol. Alco-popularity has led to a string of successes like the firm's Caribbean Twist and Red Square offerings as well as forays into the spirits and wine market. Halewood International is owned by its chairman, John Halewood.

Danisco A/S is a Denmark-based provider of food ingredients, enzymes and bio-based solutions. Danisco Company’s activities are structured into two lines of business: Food Ingredients and Industrial Enzymes - Genencor. The Food Ingredients business line supplies bio-based ingredients for food and beverage products and comprises three business segments: Enablers, Cultures and Sweeteners. The Industrial Enzymes - Genencor business line focuses on industrial biotechnology and encompasses such business segments as Fabric and Household Care, including enzymes for detergents and dishwashing, Technical Enzymes, including enzymes for bioethanol and carbohydrate processing, as well as textile treatment, and Food and Animal Nutrition, including enzymes for bread, feed and brewing applications.

Pura Foods is in a slick business. A subsidiary of US agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland, Pura Foods refines and processes edible oils, shortenings, margarines, and other spreads for the bakery, foodservice, and retail food sectors in the UK, as well as in selected overseas markets. Pura Foods company's oils include coconut, palm, rapeseed, and sunflower. Because of concern about genetically modified grains and livestock, as well as allergy and health issues, the company does not refine animal fats, soya, maize, or ground nuts. Pura's brands include Bake-lite, Peerless, Wesson Green, Pura, Leonara, and Frymax.

This company, run by the Mixon family, uses sunshine as a key ingredient to produce bounteous crops of fresh berries. It operates 1,125 acres in three southern states and Mexico. Blueberries account for 70% of sales, while blackberries bring in 20%, and raspberries, the remaining 10%. In addition to its own fields, the Mixons operate a marketing company, called SunnyRidge Farm, to sell fruit. The operation is made up of 125 independent growers in Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, California, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico. Together, the SunnyRidge farmers market some 40 million pounds of berries a year. In 2008 the company expanded its offerings to include strawberries.

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