Interview: Daniel Cárdenas Cevallos

 

  1. What were the beginnings of the company?

The company has been operating for 69 years, was created in 1949 by my grandfather Dr. Daniel Cárdenas Mora and my father Mr. Daniel Cardenas Izabal. My grandfather was from Colima, Mexico, came to work in the Ministry of Health of Mazatlan and after that had several political positions and in the 30’s or 40’s with the construction of the dam Adolfo López Mateos decided to settle in Culiacan because this generated possibilities due to economic growth through increased growth of the agricultural activity, commerce in the city and increased demand for medical services.

As my father grew up,  he decided to study agronomy, since it was the activity that was booming at the time, when graduating from college, my grandfather decided to fuse the theoretical knowledge of my father with the experience of Don Alfredo Tribollet in a society constituted in 1949; because of this our label is called “Tricar”, this partnership lasted a year, after that Mr. Tribollet continued on his side and we were working under the label Tricar in partnership between my dad and my grandfather. A few years later this society dissolves and we continue on our own. Currently the company is a co-ownership between my four brothers, my mother and me.

  1. What are the main vegetables the company grows?

Currently our main products are: tomato, bell pepper of all colors, european cucumber and slicer cucumber; however, over the years we have grown many other products such as pumpkin, peppers, tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, melons, watermelons and mini bell pepper. We already have about 10 years specialized in the products that I mention at the beginning.

Our main destination market is the United States where we send 70% of our production, about 10% to Canada and the rest is left for the national market, which has been strengthening over time.

  1. How did you start working with Eleven Rivers?

Our company has been involved with Eleven Rivers since it was founded. At the beginning we were looking for a quality certification that would help us to distinguish our offer of vegetables as “Premium”, then we analyzed that the quality issue was something that we already had exporting to international markets, so we preferred to emphasize in a certification that would cover food safety, which would give us greater certainty to our production processes, since we had previously lived experiences where we had risks of contamination of food and we wanted to somehow reduce this type of risks. After this we realized that another important issue was social responsibility.

And it was more or less in that order that we were integrating our companies’ needs covered by Eleven Rivers Certification Scheme: food safety, social and environmental responsibility.

This is how Eleven Rivers supports us, to cover what the market requires; this is something dynamic, it is not something that has to be in any particular way, but we must add what is required in the future and even eliminating the things that no longer fit the current conditions of our consumers.

  1. What benefits do grower companies have with Eleven Rivers?

Well, I think that the main benefit is the confidence of mind that you are fulfilling those three aspects that are indispensable: food safety, social and environmental responsibility. And somehow, unlike most certifications, Eleven Rivers is a certification that is validated in a weekly basis through an independent audit body. It is not like others who come once a year to review you, where you could meet only for the audit and you could pass something by mistake or by omission in the daily operation.

This is the advantage that every week during the season you are checking or validating that your operation is good, and if there is something that fails you have the possibility of correcting on time, in a short period of a week, is one of the advantages that Eleven Rivers offers.

  1. What is the main advantage that your company finds with Eleven Rivers?

I believe that weekly verification is our biggest advantage, having a third party that is reviewing the operation of your company on a weekly basis is the way to have more certainty in your operation.

There are areas of opportunity for Eleven Rivers, one of the main challenges is to communicate the Eleven Rivers scheme; to our clients, to the American and Mexican institutions, to seek to give it a greater value.

Our purpose that the Eleven Rivers Certification reaches the recognition that allows us to obtain a differentiation in the market, that gain preference of our clients and that allows to our products to have a better value.

  1. What other challenges come for Eleven Rivers certified companies?

I think the challenge is constant with Eleven Rivers, because it is a certification that is being reviewed and validated in a weekly basis. When we set a goal the difficulty is not to reach the goal, is to maintain the compliance. So, it’s a certification that you have to be living and constantly fulfilling, that’s the big challenge.

With Eleven Rivers the main purpose is to keep us in compliance with the demands of the market and a little more, always seek to comply with the requirements of Mexican and international laws.

Currently, having the Eleven Rivers certification is not a direct requirement of our customers; however, I consider that the confidence provided by Eleven Rivers in the operation of our company is very important.

We should always stay in the forefront, working a step ahead of the hand with growers in the region with the aim of giving greater security to our production.

  1. Would you recommend Eleven Rivers and why?

I recommend Eleven Rivers for two reasons: one, because it gives growers more confidence that things are going well. And two because more farmers are certified in Eleven Rivers we will make it easier to position this certification with our customers and even with government institutions.

I believe that as more producers participated, we can enrich the program and the results of certified companies will be more evident, it will be easier to communicate to all producers the benefits of the Eleven Rivers Certification.

It is important to improve the work of the different growers; learn together and I think it is something Eleven Rivers could do.

At the end of the day our competition is not in Sinaloa or Mexico, our competition is in the United States, Europe, in the greenhouses of Canada; Is in another place so we have to learn to see ourselves as a team, even though everyone has their way of producing and distributing their products. We are the farmers of Sinaloa at the end of the day, and if we do well, we will all be well. And if there is a problem, the problem will be for everyone and we will have to solve it together.