Regulatory challenges have the entire produce industry in flux and not only in Texas.
But with the rapid growth in the Rio Grande Valley’s border crossings, the uncertainty about how new implementations will impact business is more acute than others.
Even without President Trump’s tough talk on trade and immigration, the situation in the Laredo district has even some industry veterans confused.
“We’ve seen so many changes coming through all at once,” said Robert Diaz, director of operations at Fresh Imports International, LLC in Hidalgo.
“The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), FAST, the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), and the DRIVE-Safe Act—which was meant to make it easier for people to enter the driving trade—have all been pretty unpredictable, and they’ve all come through in just a few years, leaving us scrambling to keep up,” Diaz said.
Jorge Vazquez, president of Houston’s Latin Specialties LLC, agrees, noting that while everyone wants to have safer conditions and better processes for shipping, it can be difficult to keep up with so many immediate changes.
“There are a lot of unknowns with the FSMA implementation,” he said. “Even local authorities in charge of enforcing these new laws often do not know their intricacies or their meaning.”
In addition, Vazquez said, “It’s going to take time for everyone to understand the ramifications. My hope is that this happens before attorneys become the de facto enforcers of these rules, and the only winners from the new regulations.”
With the ongoing driver shortage plaguing the industry, the DRIVE-Safe (Developing Responsible Individuals for a Vibrant Economy Act) program has been of crucial importance since its introduction in 2018.
It’s meant to address many critical issues such as outdated regulations, inconsistent interstate standards, and a lack of young people entering the profession. Whether it will accomplish these goals, however, remains to be seen; while the program has enjoyed relatively strong support throughout the industry in the early stages of its passage, it’s not clear when its impact will begin to be felt.
Vazquez hopes it’s sooner rather than later, as securing qualified drivers has been one of the most challenging aspects of doing business in the area for a number of years.
“Older drivers are retiring every year at a higher rate, and the younger generations are simply not stepping up to fill those vacancies,” he said, adding that the problem is especially problematic for companies with rigorous hiring standards.
“To aggravate things further,” Vazquez said, “the recovery in the oil industry has siphoned away many qualified drivers who are willing to take on higher-risk hauls for higher pay. The produce industry simply cannot compete for those drivers from a cost perspective.”
This problem is further exacerbated in the southern reaches of Texas, where fracking has been a huge stimulant to the local economy and has pulled many skilled drivers away from the perishables supply chain. It remains to be seen if increased regulation and activism from environmental groups will affect the problem in the near term.
This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full supplement.
