Medrano Produce is a family-owned Texas-based company that sources, distributes and delivers fresh produce. Francisco Medrano is part of the third generation as the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Even as market demands and technology evolve, the business remains grounded in a strong foundational identity built across generations, Medrano says.
“The values don’t change,” he says.
Rebranding for the Modern Consumer
Modern consumers want more transparency around where their food comes from and who grows it, according to Medrano. That demand influenced the family’s rebrand earlier this year, which reflects their Mexican heritage and culture to create an emotional connection beyond produce appearance.
“The consumer is more cognizant of what it is that they’re buying and they do want those stories,” he says. “They want to know where [their food] comes from. So that way, they feel like they’re making better moral or ethical choices in their view, depending on what it is that they buy and who they buy it from.”
Family Ties and Candid Conversations
At the core of running a third-generation business are love and trust, Medrano explains. Yet that foundation doesn’t eliminate friction, because “we’re family, so everything’s personal.”
While discussions among family can be tough, Medrano says they ultimately help move the business forward. Deep family ties allow for uncomfortable, highly candid conversations where accountability stems from mutual trust and a commitment to future generations.
“I feel like those conversations are easier to have among family because of the relationship there, because of the trust and the love that you have for one another,” he says.
Tackling Industry Headwinds with Tech
Navigating a multi-generational business requires balancing institutional knowledge with modern technology to propel operations forward.
Like many produce operations, Medrano Produce faces rising overhead from fuel, labor, and transportation, which directly squeeze grower margins. Packing house labor shortages have further forced the family to seek operational efficiencies.
He says he and his cousin, Jess, have used technology to help identify areas for improvement. From there, they involve the other generations to see if the ideas could really help the business.
“We’ve been able to make some adjustments and tweaks to our processes and our structure to go ahead and help alleviate some of that pain,” he says. “It is tough at the moment.”
With labor shortages, Medrano says his family has looked at the potential for automatic sorters and field technology due to turnover and recurring retraining costs. He says this means taking a close look at cost, ROI and more before making these investments.
“We’re also going to look at we got to do everything we can to stay in business,” he says. “So that way, our employees and our families are able to go ahead and still bring food to the table. And it’s just the cycle that we’re having to deal with.”
Balancing AI with Human Experience
Emerging technologies such as AI, for example, Medrano says have the potential as a tremendous tool, but he says it doesn’t replace sales intuition, human experience or just the unpredictable nature of farming.
“AI should definitely be used as a tool,” he says. “It’s a great tool. But it should not be the fix. It’s not the answer. It’s part of the answer.”
And because the business stems around perishable commodities, Medrano says the goal is to find that balance between data and experience and combine the two together “in a way that we’re able to understand it and then convey that to our customers and consumers.”
Shepherding the Next Generation
Looking ahead to the future, Medrano says adaptability and problem-solving are key traits to help shepherd the business for the next generation and the generation after that.
“Making sure that we’re able to bring everybody together and lead to get them all moving towards a sole purpose or a goal,” he says.
He notes he and his cousins are well-suited for the task, but “we’re going to definitely need guidance from our parents and our aunts and uncles to go ahead and really bring the best or the most out of us.”
He says the future of agriculture faces huge challenges from water access, increasing costs, capital to continue to farm and more.
“Sometimes it seems a little, a little daunting, to be honest. ... And you don’t ever want to be doom and gloom. .. But it is the truth of what’s coming. And if we’re not ready for it, we will get left behind because this is not stopping for anybody.”
