Industry voices on the United Fresh/PMA merger
The Packer asked industry leaders for their perspective on the United Fresh Produce Association/Produce Marketing Association news that they will merge by the beginning of 2022.
Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council
“These are two great, distinctly different organizations and a merger has been discussed for years, so it really isn’t that surprising in hindsight. The COVID challenges likely accelerated a discussion that appeared inevitable. Looking forward, U.S. growers are going to continue to need a strong voice on federal and international issues. The questions I’ve received since the announcement all involve how that essential voice for American growers will be elevated in a global association.”
John Pandol, special projects director for Pandol Bros., Delano, Calif.
“It’s like subscribing to two cable TV packages because you like certain programs only available (through) one package or the other. Now the cable company is going to rebundle the channels. So if the things I found useful on the United Fresh cable channel and the PMA cable channel are still carried by the new combined package, my public-facing experience will be largely unchanged. Those of us in the fourth quarter of our careers look back at events held by these organization over time and their importance to our formation — the International Day held before Fresh Summit in the ’80s and ’90s, the old International Fresh Cut Produce Association show in the ’90s/2000s that was merged into United Fresh. The PMA’s Consumers Retail Conference in the mid-200’s and especially a post-United convention marketing conference in Long Beach in 2003 were events that inform my thinking to this day. The days of three simultaneous tracks of education at both United Fresh and the Fresh Summit … I still have cassettes in my garage. As the business merged and consolidated on the retail side and now (is) increasing on the production side, these organizations have had to adjust both the service menu and the funding model. Waiting for the dust to settle.”
Duane Eaton, who retired in 2014 after serving as PMA’s senior vice president of administration
“In today’s economy and with the recent staff leadership change at PMA and pending change at United Fresh, the timing makes sense. The global produce/floral industry has been fortunate to have had these well-run, professional organizations serving its needs. Combining, prioritizing and streamlining their programs and human capital will surely result in a more dynamic and exciting entity that will be based on that tradition but will have a greater ability to lead the industry into the future in a more cost-effective way. Mergers are not easy and there is a lot of work and pain ahead, but the volunteer and staff talent is in place to see that it gets done properly. The bittersweet will be the inevitable collateral damage to some long-standing programs and, more importantly, to good people. Best of luck. I’m glad I’m retired.”
Bruce Peterson, president of Peterson Insights
“I think the merger is exactly what needed to happen, and I applaud Tom Stenzel and Cathy Burns for creating an environment of trust and collaboration that enabled it to happen. Clearly, the new organization will get operational efficiencies from leveraging their combined resources. And while a tremendous effort was made to accomplish this, I think an equally challenging effort will be to establish the value proposition that the new organization will offer to its members specifically, and to the industry in general. Trade associations exist to support the needs of the collective industry in a way that individual companies could not do on their own. For example, PMA’s historic mission was to “bring buyers and sellers together.” At one time, the retail industry was mainly privately held, regional organizations. And the produce supply chain was equally fragmented and regionalized. But the industry has evolved significantly, particularly in the area of technology. And that technology also lies in the hands of the consumer. The pandemic accelerated the speed of that evolution so the produce industry is a very different one today than it was even a few short years ago. That is neither a good thing or a bad thing, it simply IS! So any organization that is supporting the industry needs to evolve its value proposition to mirror the needs of today’s evolving industry or run the risk of becoming irrelevant. And that, I believe, is the real challenge with the new PMA/United Fresh organization. You can create all the structure you want to, but if you don’t equally address what the value proposition is, then all that work will basically go to waste. It will be interesting to observe how this is articulated in the weeks and months ahead.”
