Editor’s note: The following profile is from the 2024 Packer 25, our annual tribute to 25 leaders, innovators and agents of change across the fresh produce supply chain. (You can view all honorees here.) This feature has been edited for length and clarity.
Joe Esta — Vice president, Wada Farms Marketing Group
Joe Esta’s journey to becoming a Wada Farms Marketing Group executive began in 1978 at age 9. His grandfather found a farm that allowed him to work for room and board, as well as some extra pay to help provide for his mother and four sisters.
For roughly four years, Esta says he worked at and learned from several different farms, improving his skills with each opportunity. At 13, he was old enough to find work on his own, becoming able to fully provide for his mother and sisters.
Esta began working in a potato warehouse in 1988, rising through the ranks. In 1998, he started working for Wada Farms.
“The Wada family and some very key Wada employees helped me learn and excel to the point of becoming the vice president of Wada Farms Marketing Group,” he said. “I am proud to say [that,] today, I have great friends all over the produce industry; the best people in the world, feeding the world.”
What has been the most notable change in the industry that you’ve observed during your career?
The cell phone. We cannot live without them. I used to remember everyone’s phone number off the top of my head. Now I couldn’t tell you my kids’ numbers. If Google Maps doesn’t tell me to turn right, I may go left — however, I am OK with a detour.
What is one thing you know now that you wish you had known early in your professional journey?
I wish I would have known that things can be just as rewarding on the first step of the ladder before starting to climb up. Decide what success is before taking those steps. It can be just as hard to climb back down.
What is something you hope to see accomplished — individually, as a company or within the industry — within the next five years?
Contracting. I would love to see some change there. What a stressful time for everyone involved.
