Interview: Heriberto Vlaminck Seidel

Heriberto Vlaminck Seidel Chairman of the Board of Distributor Hortimex and Chairman of the Board of Eleven Rivers.

Mr. Heriberto Vlaminck personally receives us in the lobby of the main offices of the company Triple H, commercial name with which is also known Distribuidora Hortimex.

In the lobby of its offices located in the Culiacán Market of Abastos, you can see various awards that the company has harvested through its operating time, proudly show two National Exports Awards (2008 and 2014) and the National Agroalimentario prize. (2008).

Through this interview, Mr. Heriberto Vlaminck tells us about his arrival in Sinaloa, the beginnings of Triple H, the current position of the company, the challenges of the horticultural sector and its participation in the Eleven Rivers Program.

1. Where are you from and how did you arrive in Sinaloa?

I am from Uruguay, I was born in Montevideo. My father is Belgian, my mother is German. Then we went to Argentina, to Buenos Aires, where my father represented as a director to a company that exports cereals.

In 1968 my father told me to come to Mexico to spend a vacation season, at the end of that year I arrived in Mexico and here I stayed. I had the opportunity to know the northwest of the country and I really liked it.

I began to see business opportunities in Sonora; There I met Mr. Manuel Puebla, who in 1969 was coming to Sinaloa with the new governor, Alfredo Valdez Montoya, to occupy the post as Secretary of Economic Development. In that year, I had the opportunity to accompany Engineer Puebla to Sinaloa to promote European industrial machinery and equipment. That’s how I came and stayed in these lands.

2. What were your beginnings in agriculture?

I had the opportunity to work 5 years in an organization called Ejidal Agricultural Development of the State of Sinaloa, I knew the field and that’s where I had the opportunity to take pleasure in agriculture.

Then I was Director of Commercial Development of the state government of the Secretariat of Economic Development, during the six years of Alfonso Genaro Calderón Velarde and still with Toledo Corro I worked for a year and a half.

At that time, I began to plant, I started with 5 hectares and planted radish, lettuce, tomato, serrano chili and in the afternoon when I left the work I sold my product directly to the Garmendia market.

Other well-known producers asked me for the favor of selling their products together with mine and so I began to sell other people’s products.

3. ¿How do you started Triple H?

It was in 1982 during the municipal presidency of Roberto Tamayo, when the Food Market was built and gave many facilities. We had warehouses to pay in 10 years with a fixed interest rate of 46% per annum which was very cheap, when interest was up to 130% per annum, that’s when I could buy the hold. “The activity was growing and the time came when I had to decide whether I would stay as a government employee or dedicate to my business, and I played it: I decided on agriculture.”

The business was growing, I began to represent diverse farmers. When I started packing tomatoes and had to create a label, hire a publicist company here from Sinaloa and I said, “look, I want you to make me a label with the name Triple H”, “and why Triple H?” they ask, “because I have three children that start with H: Heriberto, Hugo and Horacio. That’s how Triple H was born.

4. ¿Cuál es el alcance de su empresa actualmente?

Now we are in 8 states of the republic, we represent 22 agricultural and we handle approximately 3 thousand trucks a year.

We sell tomatoes, chili peppers, cucumbers, mangoes, and we are penetrating lemons. 65% is export and the rest is national market.

Today we are very well integrated into the United States, we have our own wineries in McAllen, San Diego, our own offices in Atlanta and we have our own staff working throughout the United States.

5. What do you consider to be the main challenges facing the horticultural sector today?

The business has been changing, in the beginning quality was the most important, now that is not the main thing.

Today there are new food safety laws in the United States, there are very strong regulations and we must be prepared for it.

In recent years, we have witnessed for different outbreaks of pollution related to agricultural products in Mexico and put the whole industry at risk.

In the United States, there are different law firms that are prepared to sue the farmer who is found to have created a problem, those demands are millions, and no producer could easily solve them.

The distributors have realized, that we can no longer buy products from any side, without knowing if that production is duly certified.

The other important challenge is social responsibility, to more informed consumers and more demanding buyers.

This issue is increasingly becoming an option for the primary sector. Companies that do not address Social Responsibility as an investment and as a necessity, will see it reflected in terms of loss of competitiveness and markets.

6. What role does Eleven Rivers play in the development process of the agricultural industry?

Eleven Rivers was born in 2009 to address the accusation that fell on tomato production in the case of the Salmonella “Saint Paul” outbreak in the United States.

The Program was created as a padlock to protect state production and minimize the risk of contamination of our products.

Regardless of what was already being done in Sinaloa on the issue of food safety, it was seen that it was necessary to be more vigilant and responsible for the matter.

The objective is first to make sure to offer the consumer a healthy, safe, and reliable product; And secondly that the market recognizes this effort to generate a preference for the product that is originally from Sinaloa and in the long term there may be a differentiation in price.

Eleven Rivers certification has a very important differentiating aspect: once a company has been certified, it must be verified weekly to ensure that food safety, traceability, process quality, HACCP and social and environmental responsibility are followed.

The entire technical operation and evaluations are carried out by independent bodies that are recognized in the market.

“Verification in the companies who participate whit Eleven Rivers is permanent, because involuntary oversight can occur at any time and can create a problem for everyone, it can affect the region and the country.”