Michael: Food safety and social responsibility have been two of the most important factors over the last decade in our industry. We’ve seen a lot of regulation from the FDA but also, our clients want to see social audits for product coming from other countries outside the US. Over the last few years, the focus is more on sustainability and traceability which are two areas our company is really diving into further these days. We carry out our own internal checklist regarding sustainability which covers most of the essential areas such as water conservation, renewable energy, and recycling programs. We are constantly focusing on ways to improve our sustainability program whether it relates to promoting more beneficial insects as we grow a large portion of organics or reducing carbon emission at the farms. Sustainability is a huge topic and we strongly feel grower companies such as ourself really need to put a focus on this now and not later. Traceability is another important topic we are reviewing these days. Not only having the ability to trace product back to the farm but also to trace consumer analytics. It’s fascinating how much technology has grown in the last few years and how we access to so much more consumer data from what we had before. This data helps us understand the markets and consumers much better.

Michael: Each farm, regardless of whether they are grape vineyards in Sonora, or greenhouses in Sinaloa for our bell peppers or tomatoes, each must follow the same protocols and the same standards. Having this continuity is what keeps us consistent as a brand. Now, the difference is our grape season is a bit more condensed into a smaller window which makes it a little intense. It is very important to apply the same scheme at our vineyards as we do at our other farms without compromising our goals and objectives of delivering the best fruit. Having experience and very skilled workers are a few of the keys to taking on the commodity of table grapes.