As I think back to my first produce convention, which I attended while in college (in the late 1970s), I realized that there were only three women at that convention in San Francisco: my mother, Frieda Caplan; Sybil Henderson (who wrote mini cookbooks on veggies and did TV segments promoting fresh produce); and me. When I joined my mom’s business after college, I’m pretty sure I was the only twenty-something girl going to the LA Produce Market at 4 a.m. daily.
Very slowly, I started to notice more women getting involved in the industry. But I found most women were in support roles. HR, accounting, marketing and public relations. There were very few women in sales, and definitely no women who owned a company (except for my mom).
Other produce companies would refer women to my mom because women couldn’t get jobs in produce sales. Ask Tonya Antle. She was from a produce family, lived in Southern California and wanted to get into the business. Every company she approached referred her to Frieda’s. We hired her on the spot!
About 25 years ago, you could see momentum building. There were more and more women in sales. And I’ll never forget meeting Conchita Espinosa from Fru-Veg in Miami and Gloria Polanco of Frutesa in Guatemala–they both founded and ran their own companies. That was amazing back then! It was a long time before there were any women as directors of produce at retail. But these role models were my inspiration for launching Women in Produce in 1993, a reception to be held at both United’s and PMA’s annual conventions to provide a place for women to network.
What is so unique to produce sales is that if you have a product of value that a buyer can make money on, they don’t care if you are male or female. Black or white. Young or old. If you’re smart and can show them how they can make money selling your product, you can make the sale. Smarts is what counts.
And that’s what women have brought to our industry. Women tend to be detailed and relationship-oriented, and they still represent the vast majority of consumers—women. It always made the most sense to me that a woman sales person, buyer or retailer, chef or wholesaler would think like a consumer. And what a competitive edge that would be.
So, thank you to the men who had the foresight in our industry to give opportunities to women. Their foresight opened doors and windows. And now we have balanced teams and working groups.
I think you will agree that it’s a lot more fun working in our industry now. And what a great example we are setting for millenials and Gen Zs who are looking to get into the food and agriculture business. Our little old ag business is looking pretty progressive!
