OAKES FARMS, INC.
NAPLES, FLORIDA

Oakes Farms is one of the largest independently owned agribusiness operations in South Florida. Headquartered in Collier County, Florida, Oakes Farms maintains a diversified portfolio of services that reach a global market and include farming, packing, shipping, retail markets and food service and seafood distribution. Our business was founded on a promise to support friends and neighbors in their pursuit to live healthy lives. This has been – and continues to be – our motivation during every customer connection. Born with soil running through his veins, Alfie Oakes loves to farm. As a young boy, he loitered in the fields to watch the local farmers labor. And during his pre-teen years, spent pre-dawn mornings helping his father, Frank Oakes, ready the family’s small produce stand. By the time Alfie Oakes graduated high school, he was brokering wholesale deals and harvesting his own crops. Over the next 15 years, he never lost focus on the brokerage side of his business while also buying more farmland, and expanding into the retail grocery business. The Oakes Farms story sprouted from tragedy in the 1930s when great-grandpa William Oakes lost his leg and ultimately died during a collision between a large boat and a bridge in St. Georges. State reparations for Ma Oakes and her children came in the form of a new house at the foot of a newly constructed replacement bridge. But it was 11-year old Banny Oakes who stepped forward to support the family by selling produce at the foot of the bridge to travelers crossing it. Oakes Farms This arm of the company manages multiple crop cycles of 45 commodities on 1,400+ acres of conventional farmland. It also oversees several packing houses that pack and manufacture over 475 custom packing containers, a fleet of 37 temperature-controlled semi-trucks, and over 1,000 independent truck drivers that deliver hundreds of farm-grown commodities between distribution points across the United States. Locally grown and specialty food products delivered to your kitchen Oakes Farms Food Service & Distribution division is a direct link between the farmer and the chef. We package and deliver fresh and tasteful food products to thousands of families through our wholesale partners every day. Oakes Farms’ Captain Jerry’s Seafood wholesale division is managed by Rich Cahoon. Connect with Rich and other members of Captain Jerry’s Seafood sales team by following the link below. at Oakes Farms Market on Davis by calling 239.732.0144 ext. 304. A native of Southwest Florida, Bill Brittenham is Oakes Farms Food Service & Distribution division’s Vice President in charge of buying and selling. Bill’s 35-year career experience in the Florida produce industry is incomparable as he has spent his life entrenched in all matters affecting the retail, commercial and institutional food service markets. From his humble beginnings as a buyer for Cape Coral Produce to his hands-one management of Alfie Oakes’ first packing house where he oversaw shipping, receiving, grading and warehouse distribution, Bill understands every aspect of the Seed to Table process. This knowledge and his ability to find solutions quickly and efficiently makes a difference in how the Oakes Farms Food Service & Distribution division continues to grow and build trust with its customers, especially its large hospitality clients. *Captain Jerry’s Seafood retail counter is located inside Oakes Farms Market on Davis Boulevard in Naples. The son of a fisherman, Rich Cahoon grew up on the docks in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As a young man he shelled scallops and worked on lobster boats before moving to Florida in ’89. His first job in Florida was working alongside Captain Jerry and attributes much of what he knows about the wholesale seafood business to those years he spent as the Captain’s prodigy. Knowing quality starts at the point of first catch, Rich traveled to Central and South America where he visited several seafood operators and inspected the processing facilities that import product sold in the U.S. Rich became the head of operations for Captain Jerry’s in the late 90s and drove to Miami every day for two years to personally inspect each order coming off the cargo ships.