Cornucopia’s Take: Cornucopia is often asked to create an organic vegetable scorecard. There are actually few recognizable fruit and vegetable brands, and nearly every one is produced on an industrial scale—including Danone’s Earthbound Farms and Campbell’s Bolthouse Farms. Their produce is trucked from California, Mexico, and elsewhere–and suffers from the long travel times. We recommend you buy your vegetables from local, organic producers whenever you can. Your local farmers market and member-owned food cooperatives (if there are any in your area) are two excellent resources, along with the websites eatwild.com and localharvest.org. The Weston A. Price Foundation local chapters are a good resource as well. You will be rewarded with the highest level of flavor and nutrition.
Danone is struggling to sell its Earthbound Farms unit
New York Post
by Josh Kosman
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Danone is finding it difficult to sell its Earthbound Farms business, showing that Campbell is not the only one that’s struggling to unload an organic grower.
France-based yogurt seller Danone has been trying since June to sell Earthbound Farms, a 47,000-acre organic vegetable and lettuce farm in California, according to a source.
Earthbound went from generating $70 million in Ebitda a few years ago to having negative Ebitda now, the source said. “It is losing money and getting little interest,” a source close to the JPMorgan-run auction said.
WhiteWave Foods in 2013 paid $600 million for Earthbound, and then Danone in 2017 bought WhiteWave for $12.5 billion.
The Earthbound auction is happening as Campbell is finding little interest among potential buyers for similar money-losing business Bolthouse Farms, as The Post reported exclusively Thursday.
Danone declined to comment.
