Also in 1945, Publix founder George Jenkins acquires a warehouse and the All American grocery chain from the Lakeland Grocery Company. He begins replacing the 19 small stores with larger supermarkets, focusing on offering a meticulously clean shopping environment, friendly service, and quality merchandise. While Jenkins plans to revolutionize the retail aspect of the marketplace, another farmers’ market joins the ranks in Fort Myers near the Gulf Coast. Situated on 20-plus acres, the Fort Myers Farmers Market will climb to more than $27 million in annual sales. By 1947 grapefruit prices have climbed to 13 cents per box from a low of 5 cents per box during the Depression.
1950s
Fly Invasions
By 1950, Manatee County Fly Invasion is cultivating 2,234 acres of tomatoes, well on its way to dominating the fresh tomato market.
This same year, Florida’s citrus industry sets a new record, shipping 100 million boxes. In the summer of the same year, a small group of local farmers establish a marketing cooperative called Pioneer Growers to handle and market their fresh vegetables.
Pioneer Growers Cooperative quickly becomes a major grower-shipper handling more than 2 million packages per year.
Plant City’s farmers’ market, 1950.
Photograph courtesy of State Archives of Florida.
“Pioneer is a growers-owned cooperative that consists of growers from Homestead to South Georgia with its main office in Belle Glade,” explains Gene Duff, executive vice president and general manager of Pioneer Growers Cooperative.
“It was founded to give individual growers access to modern packing and marketing,” notes Duff. “In the early stages, we had more members, but they were small growers. Today we have fewer but larger members.”About 50 miles northeast of Naples, Immokalee Farmers’ Market opens in 1951. Today, the market spans more than 25 acres with sales of $12 million each year. In 1952 Winn & Lovett is the first Florida industrial corporation to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
