Interview: Laura Villa Beltrán – Food Safety Technician Agrícola Chaparral

Laura Villa Beltrán has been field supervisor of quality and safety in Agricola en Chaparral, for more than a year; is a Biochemical Food Engineer, originally from Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Laura is one of the agricultural technicians who received a recognition for her outstanding performance in the 2017-2018 Training Program in the evaluation of each of the five axes of the Eleven Rivers Growers v2.4 Certification Scheme.

 1. Since when do you work at Agrícola Chaparral and in what position?

I am field supervisor of quality and safety, since approximately 16 months.

2. What are your activities on a normal work day?

A normal work day starts at 7 a.m. first verifying that the quality inspectors’ schedule, currently the company has 10 quality inspectors in the field, who are responsible for evaluating that the quality parameters of the fruit are met after the cut to avoid damage of the handling in harvest.

Every day I supervise all the perimeters of the field to detect any anomaly and take measures in this regard; If there are faults in perimeter barriers, cleaning or any damage to the infrastructure, so that the company is always in optimal conditions. All these activities are carry out on a daily basis, accompanied by logbooks, so that we can have a timely follow-up of the activities and be able to detect any area of ​​improvement in the shortest possible time.

Followed by the above, made a tour of the lots where there is harvest, and then go through the irrigation systems. Concluding resolving anything that has arisen during the day in question.

3. What are the main challenges you find in the area that you perform?

Every day they are different but very similar to each other, since every day I make a field trip, however, we always find unforeseen events.

The most important challenge that I consider involves my area, is the daily interaction with people, to sensitize our personnel about the importance of their activities as part of food safety and make them know that we all are part of the production process of the company.

At Agricola Chaparral, we consider the training of all of our workers fundamental, we have migrant personnel from different regions of Mexico, which means that we have a great cultural variety, which is why, during this season, we carry out the training process in a different way: upon arrival at the company by migrant farm workers, we held a meeting with all of them to explain the food safety regulations on which the field area is based, we explain the rights they have in the company, responsibilities and obligations.

We make people see why we follow these regulations, and for that we explain a little about the destination markets to which our products go, about the certification audits; the commercial importance of certifications for the company and for us as company members since it is our source of work.

People are skeptical, for cultural reasons, however, in our experience, we have more and more interested workers, who ask questions and interact with us, which allows us to give more certainty to the operation of the company within our daily activities.

We seek to be more inclusive in the importance of quality and food safety for all workers of the company, so we perform constant training that includes written exam application.

I think that little by little we are gaining the trust and support of the workers and that makes my work possible, however, this activity continues to be the biggest challenge I face.

4. How important do you think the training is?

Very important during each of the processes and for all personnel, since they are a very efficient support tool in terms of raising awareness of the objectives of the company, the regulations and certifications on which we are ruled, rights and obligation of managers and each of the employees that work in the company.

5. How do you implement a culture of compliance in food safety and quality in the company?

The culture that we have in Agricola Chaparral has been formed little by little with the integration of all the workers and collaborators that are part of it, as I commented earlier this happens through training, workshops and daily practices where the importance of create and maintain an environment with the best food safety standards in our processes, which allow us to obtain quality products.

6. How important are certifications for the company and when did Agricola Chaparral start working under the Eleven Rivers Certification Scheme?

They are very important, since they are a tool to evaluate ourselves under compliance standards not only in safety issues, but also in others as; quality of processes, social responsibility and packaging. Agricola Chaparral, began to work on the Eleven Rivers Certification Scheme since the beginning of the program.

7. Tell us about your experience in the certification process with Eleven Rivers.

Personally, it was a learning experience in each of the stages, as all certification schemes need to dedicate time and effort to achieve the objective to be certified.

Eleven Rivers is a very complete and varied scheme, which helps you complement all the activities that are carried out in the company.

8. Do you consider that being incorporated into Eleven Rivers has brought some benefit to the company and, if so, what has it been?

I believe that it has been of benefit to the company, because it allows to be prepared always, taking care of the details that may happen and that could compromise the food safety of the process, damaging the final quality of the products we offer to the public.

9. What did you feel about gaining recognition in the annual Eleven Rivers Training Program?

For me it was a surprise, I did not expect to appear among the group’s outstanding technicians, since this was the first training focused on the Eleven Rivers Certification Scheme.

10. What topics do you consider important for the upcoming Eleven Rivers Training Program?

Development of records, documents and monitoring of metrics would be very practical.