Interview: Georgius Gotsis, Chairman of The Eleven Rivers Growers Board

 

Georgius is the current Chairman of Eleven Rivers Board for the period 2016-2019, comes from a family of farmers with Greek roots; with him Agrícola Gotsis, S.A. de C.V. operates with the fourth generation in the farm business; Is an economist graduated from Pomona College, California; He has taken several courses in Oratory and leadership in various institutions. Since childhood he has been very involved with the activity, which has made him feel a great love for agriculture.

1. Could you tell us a little about the history of your company and how you get involved in the family business?

It is a business that begins in 1921 when my Greek grandfather arrives to Mexico from the United States, after having been through several crossings, he finds out that there is a valley in the North of Mexico with great potential to produce vegetables, in 1950 he and his sister begins a distributor in the United States and since then our family has been dedicated to the agriculture and the distribution of fresh vegetables.

We are currently planting in Sinaloa and Sonora; we just sent melons to England and we have 2 years with food distribution through McAllen, Texas; that is where I find myself working harder.

My participation in the company was from the time I graduate from college; starting in 2003 working two years at the Omega Produce distributor in Nogales, AZ; Later, return to Culiacan to the farm until the end of 2013; I had the opportunity to write from the agricultural sector for the Bien Informado magazine and for the El Debate newspaper; after that I was in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Nutrition (SAGARPA Mexico) as General Coordinator of Commercial and trade Promotion of ASERCA Mexico; I was in charge of the national and international promotion of Mexican foods, such diverse products ranging from tequila to peppers, tomatoes and avocados, which gave me a very national and global vision of how the sector is and all the potential it has .

2. What are the differences that you find in the agricultural activity of Sinaloa to the rest of Mexico? And what are the areas of opportunity that you think growers could take advantage of?

When I arrived in Mexico City I was very proud to be from Sinaloa, to be in a business where we have always stood out that it is Agriculture “the best grains producers” “the oldest exporters to US”, however, I got surprised that there are other States of the Mexican Republic that in terms of value export more than us and with very different products.

I think the main challenge is to diversify; we have the climates, we have the land and the most important thing we have the experience to plant, I think the main challenge is: What else can we plant that has a greater value? our greatest advantage is precisely that experience, for us it is very easy to put a packaging line, start a food safety program in any crop, infrastructure needs to attract farm workers, supplies, quality machinery, we know with whom, when and where.

In Sinaloa we are the most advanced nationwide on issues of safety and social responsibility and that is our greatest strength, which we must reaffirm and continue to be in the future.

3. What are the strategies that you consider the agricultural producers must follow to position the horticultural production of Sinaloa in the international markets?

Our product speaks for us, when our products reach the markets are distinguished by their freshness, aroma and flavor, and if accompanied by a certification as Eleven Rivers is our best letter of introduction, I do not consider that we need to make a great promotion campaign which implies investment of millions of dollars in the short term, although eventually it is one of our objectives.

What we need to do now is to generate results and confidence of each box that leaves Sinaloa with safety and social responsibility that supports our production.

I believe that the medium and big producers, even some smaller ones already have much support from the agricultural organizations that exist in the state; as Eleven Rivers. I believe that we must involve the small producer a little more, to guide them in the basic points of food safety and social responsibility that must be fulfilled, is a work in which we have to continue working at a State level but mainly nationally.

4. How important do you consider the agricultural certifications for the positioning of Sinaloa at a global level?

Certifications are no longer optional, they are a necessity that our buyers demand, we know very well which are the ones that the Americans ask because it is our main destination market; However, I think we should begin to see what certifications the European and Asian markets ask for, because we can be surprised that they are often unaware of North American certifications and do not know the laboratories we are accustomed to working with.

There are certifications on social responsibility that are beginning in Mexico that have already been very popular in Central and South America since they have focused on exporting to Europe.

Having a certification is to comply with what the market demands, what your customers ask for. Sometimes there are certifications that are not well known such is the case of the Risk Reduction of SENASICA, which I consider to be extremely important since it is the Mexican authority that is reviewing and endorsing your company, but probably is not known by our buyer in the United States. The same happens with Eleven Rivers, which is an extremely important certification that is not yet so well-known by buyers, which gives us the certainty that we are complying with the standards required by the market and that eventually with the increase of certified producers and quality of our products it will best known.

5. What are the challenges that the Sinaloa exporters will face due to the possible renegotiation of NAFTA by the US president?

I believe that one of the possibilities could be the tariff barriers to export and although any cost could affect us, is a situation that we can solve.

There are other measures that we will have to put a little more attention, such as phytosanitary measures, market and dumping negotiation, is where we have to pay special attention; I insist Eleven Rivers will support us with those of food safety and social responsibility, we must continue to strengthen the program, adding more producers who can see the benefits of working with Eleven Rivers.

In the case of dumping we must seek to negotiate with Florida as we have done in the last 20 years as an industry with the agreement we have reached.

6. What international markets do you think the Sinaloa exporters should explore?

First we have to know the logistics possibilities that exist in our country; we have to know what options are available. Suddenly we could find out that the Arab markets buy tomatoes and buy it at a competitive price, however, if there is no logistical possibility, it would not be worth trying.

In reality there are possibilities to reach Europe: Holland, Germany and England. There are also possibilities to reach the East of the United States, Japan and China; these possibilities are through commercial flights or through companies that offer logistics services.

It would be worth investigating what is available and then departing to try to explore other possible destination markets of our products.

On the other hand, we must know what other products are already demanded in the markets of Europe and Asia and try to have them in Sinaloa. We could try the cultivation of avocado even with lower yields, however we must evaluate other possibilities; the cranberry that is already produced in Sinaloa, the malanga, the mangosteen, the aromatic herbs and look for other attractive products that we could have in Sinaloa that opened the possibility to us to new markets.

7. What make you take over the Chairman position of Eleven Rivers Growers?

First to all to know that we have first world product, competitive against any other cultivated elsewhere; Second for the agricultural organizations that exist in Sinaloa that form a team with Eleven Rivers: The Confederation of Agricultural Associations of the State of Sinaloa (CAADES), the Commission for Research and Defense of Vegetables (CIDH), the Farmers Associations that give certainty that you will be able to work for the goal; and thirdly because I am concerned about the changes in the United States with the amendments to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) for which I consider strategic work and strengthen the Eleven Rivers brand.

8. What is your vision of Eleven Rivers in the medium and long term?

In the medium term, I believe we should continue to have more growers interested and motivated to work with certification, increasing the base of producers as much as possible.

I would like that our program achieves the recognition of distributors and consumers to the point where they could look for the products of the various producers through the preference of the Eleven Rivers brand. I would even like to position ourselves as the “Avocados From Mexico” brand has achieved, where each producer has its own brand, but they work under this collective brand.

That within 5 or 10 years our distributors in Nogales call us to ask for the brand Eleven Rivers, which could be differentiated not only by quality, but also for a better price, that would be the goal.

9. What are the main challenges of this program?

Continue to involve more growers and achieve brand positioning. We have the bases for this, we will work in communicating what we do and the benefits of the program make them know all the support that the certification has based on Mexican laws, the operation of third parties to audit and verify their company weekly and when they recognize the benefits of companies that have already achieved certification.

Another very important challenge is obviously to achieve market recognition.

10. Something else you want to add

As well said by Mr. Heriberto Vlaminck former president of this organization “Eleven Rivers is a safer insurance” you can have the confidence that in your company things are doing well, which is one of the advantages offered by the Eleven Rivers scheme since once you have obtained your certificate a third party visits your company and checks the operation weekly, that offers you a certainty that no other certification has at present.

That’s why we invite producers to join this program, to start working with Eleven Rivers, because no matter how small or big your business is, you can always start working in a more responsible, safe and sustainable way.