Interview: Fidel Antonio Vargas González
Coordinator of Quality, Food Safety and Certifications of Agricola Chaparral.
Industrial and systems engineer, graduated from Tecnológico de Monterrey, originally from Guamúchil, Sinaloa; With extensive experience in quality and food safety, Fidel Antonio Vargas González is a protagonist of Sinaloa agriculture.
After undertaking different work projects, finally in 2000 joined to the Agricola Chaparral team, next January will be 15 years of being a prominent collaborator of this company.
- How did you join to Agricola Chaparral?
My first job after graduating from college was in a consulting company dedicated to the organizational design of companies. Later I was part of a coordination project in Chata, once I finished the project I joined to Bachoco in the traffic area. Due to a scheduling conflict, I had to leave work and started sending job applications in different job boards.
Finally, they told me about Agricola Chaparral and I was interviewed by Mr. Sergio Esquer, since then I was part of Agricola Chaparral, currently as Coordinator of quality, food safety and certifications.
- What do you do on a normal day’s work inside Agricola Chaparral?
The first thing I do is to prospect the production that will be taken during the day.
Subsequently, in relation to quality, we analyze the trucks that arrive, under what conditions they do, how the fruit arrives, what damages it has, etc..; In this way, we can work on controls and improvements. On the other hand, the staff.
Is in contact with the finished product is supervising that the quality levels that the customers request us, are being fulfilled.
It also carried out general checks on the packaging, reviewing the compliance of the employees’ hygiene policies, the condition of the machinery and the facilities, the handling that is given to the different packaging materials and other aspects of safety to control.
Collect the evidence and information required for the different certifications such as Eleven Rivers, Socially Responsible Company, and others.
- Since when are you familiar with the Eleven Rivers Regulatory Scheme?
From its beginnings, 4 years ago when CAADES started the project.
- How do you perceive the Eleven Rivers Program?
Significant progress has been made in the Regulatory Scheme, since initially it was not very well defined what the course was going to take the program.
Today everything is much more organized and has better control in all aspects, both internal and external.
Likewise, the issue of disclosure has allowed not only managers to be aware of what happens, but the operational staff has a greater interaction with everything concerning Eleven Rivers.
- Do you think that Agricola Chaparral has benefited from being incorporated into Eleven Rivers?
Yes, it has allowed us to tie many loose ends we had. For example, one of the primary factors of any agricultural is the human factor: the people who came from other cities to work with us and the responsibility that we have with them and their families.
With Eleven Rivers, we have been able to better control certain indicators in terms of wages, living conditions, etc. With the metrics of the scheme we have been able to guide and implement corrective and preventive measures to continue the right track.
- Eleven Rivers can support the company in some way?
This last part of Eleven Rivers really gave us a lot of support.
The courses of capacitation that have been organized have supported me a lot, as well as the staff that is in my charge since it has allowed them to get more involved in all this.
These trainings have prepared us much more and we are working more effectively, achieving greater progress in conjunction with the technicians who advise us.
7. Any comments you would like to add?
As I said, this new stage of the Eleven Rivers Program has really pleased us. We feel more support regarding the knowledge of what is the Regulatory Scheme and a greater communication between the administration and the participating companies.
We have also been able to observe a greater integration between the five axes that form part of the Scheme.
Many certifications are based only on food safety, many others in relation to the social. The fact that a single certification encompasses all these aspects makes a difference, and if the idea is sold well to the buyer or the customer this will attract a lot of attention.