Packer Fresh Take: CarrieAnn Arias of Naturipe Farms

CarrieAnn Arias, vice president of marketing for Naturipe Farms, tells us about her roots, her best marketing advice, and about the time she met Gordon Ramsay.
CarrieAnn Arias, vice president of marketing for Naturipe Farms, tells us about her roots, her best marketing advice, and about the time she met Gordon Ramsay.
(CarrieAnn Arias)

Welcome to The Packer’s Fresh Take, a new column featuring advice and inspiration from leaders and innovators in the produce industry, in their own words.

CarrieAnn Arias, vice president of marketing for Naturipe Farms, tells us about her roots, her best marketing advice, and about the time she met Gordon Ramsay.

Tell us about your roots in produce.

I worked in a completely different industry that was really affected post-September 11, 2001, and I realized that I needed to change industries. I also wanted to work closer to home in Salinas, Calif. I took a job at a small produce brokerage and produce foodservice company as an administrator to one of the owners, just to get my foot in the door. I loved the industry; I grew up around agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley. All of my friends are in ag and I went to an ag college, I just didn’t initially know anybody in the business locally until I was given an opportunity. It’s funny because now when I see the man who hired me, I always tell him ‘You gave me my shot, my foot in the door of the greatest career.’ And I thank him for it every time I see him, and I am so appreciative because I love it. I never thought I would end up here and now I can’t imagine doing anything else!

Hit us with your best advice.

“Never fall in love with a design because consumers will break your heart.” When you get to the research stage of product development, consumers are always going to love something different than what you like! Always, always. You have to listen to consumers and take your own personal opinion out of things. You have to be willing to let customers tell you what they need and want instead of pushing your own agenda.

The most successful products are the ones that consumers have a hand in developing, in one way or another. I remember being devastated by a concept that I fell in love with that didn’t win in the eyes of consumers. My boss told me ‘Hey you’ve got to understand – you may have thought this was the greatest thing ever, but consumers have spoken, and they disagreed.’

What’s an untapped opportunity for the industry?

I really think that eCommerce is something that, as an industry, we’re struggling with how to take advantage of. Packaging technology hasn’t caught up with some of the demands of eCommerce. The produce category is traditionally shopped with all of your senses being activated and when it comes to ecomm you’re losing the visual theater of a produce department.

You’re losing the smells; you’re losing the ability to tactically experience the produce before you put it in your cart and when you lose all of your senses it really makes the produce category transactional. And that’s something that we’ve not had to face before. While COVID-19 has encouraged people to buy more produce online because they know it’s good for them and they’re thinking about their health, we really haven’t cracked the nut, as an industry, about how to truly be successful in capturing all of the impulse buying that produce enjoys when a person walks in the produce department. It’s just not there yet for us online.

CarrieAnn golf

What's your favorite work travel memory?

My greatest moment was meeting Gordon Ramsay in a United lounge at 6 o’clock in the morning when we had been snowed in in Washington D.C. I got to spend 20 minutes talking to him – I’m a massive fan – and it was the greatest moment for me and still is to this day. The conversation kicked off because he liked my shoes! He said that my running shoes were ‘bloody awesome!’

What’s your proudest achievement?

Every time you have the opportunity to bring a product to market it’s like your new baby. And you love all your babies the same.

What keeps you cool as a cucumber?

The gym and golf … and my wine collection.

What’s on the menu?

I love to cook and one of my favorite things that I have learned since I’ve been at Naturipe is how to bring berries into savory dishes that I would have never put berries in before. Our blueberry barbecue sauce is wildly popular. The blueberry guacamole is one of my favorite things — I love that dish. Adding berries into salads that are traditionally savory delivers that sweet component and its now a standard in my kitchen.

But what I am enjoying most are the more unusual things, like rice and vegetable-based dishes. I cook a rice pilaf with blueberries that’s crazy good. Salmon, if you do a teriyaki salmon and take the teriyaki at the end and add raspberries into it and put it on top it is so good. Savory cooking with berries has become a huge thing for me.

What did you ‘binge’ during the pandemic? Did you try a new hobby you’d recommend?

I actually binged working out. I lost 55 pounds during COVID-19. I really took the opportunity to focus on myself.

What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?

I still look back on my first concert as probably my favorite because I have so many memories of it. It was Charlie Daniels, Diamond Rio and Alabama. Yes, I know it is corny by my own taste in music today, but I just remember the excitement of seeing my first big arena concert. I was awed by the sounds, the stage and the screaming crowd. Even though I’ve probably seen concerts I liked more in general, it was the one that started my live music addiction. That’s one of the hardest things for me through COVID-19 was not having any live music. I’ve been following a lot of the bands that have done live YouTube performances during COVID-19. It gave me the opportunity to see something even if it was from my couch!

 

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