Longtime Washington produce marketer Pat McDonald sells PMI
Longtime Washington produce marketer Pat McDonald sells PMI
After nearly two decades brokering Northwest produce through her own company, Pat McDonald has, if only temporarily, hung up that hat.
Ms. McDonald launched Pacific Marketing International in the Yakima, WA, area 18 years ago and handled a wide variety of items, with a focus on Washington asparagus.
In early March Ms. McDonald sold PMI to Rasmussen & Sons, one of the brokerage's two primary asparagus growers. Greg Rasmussen and his wife, Joel, are now sole owners of the farming operation, and the sales and marketing arm has been reorganized as Rasmussen Marketing.
As she adjusted to the departure from brokering and looked to what might come next in her life, Ms. McDonald said she is unlikely to retire completely.
"This is the most exciting part because I don't know what I want to do now, and I can't wait to find out," she said. "I don't feel ready to retire in the old 'hang-your-hat-up' style. I want to keep on the move and do something different."
Raised on a small livestock farm in Yakima, Ms. McDonald has strong ties to agriculture that began in her childhood.
"When I was eight years old, my parents gave each of my four siblings and me one cow and one ewe. We raised and sold our calves and lambs for spending money," she recalled. The youngsters were also "responsible for the labor on the farm, changing sprinklers, building fences, feeding all the livestock, cleaning barns and bucking hay."
As often happens, the girl left the farm. But the farm never completely left the girl.
"Twenty years ago I was working as the manager of a newspaper, and I was asked by a grower to review the r?sum?s that he had received from a produce industry headhunter in California. The position he was trying to fill was for a produce broker. When he decided that he did not like any of the applicants, he asked me if I was interested in the position. My first response was, 'How much does it pay?'" she said.
"I worked as his sales representative for two years and then formed my own produce brokerage firm, Pacific Marketing International Inc. My former employer and several other growers signed sales contracts with my firm, and I was off and running."
She said that early in her broker career, "it became obvious that Northwest produce growers, especially in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, did not have access to all of the services, machinery, information and resources other growing areas enjoyed. I became a founding member of the Washington Vegetable Association, which grew into the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association."
Trends, varieties and new equipment were constantly being examined, and the group held seminars on marketing as well.
Ms. McDonald herself gave talks on marketing in the produce industry at some of the association conventions, offering industry overviews from a marketing viewpoint.
"I explained how newspaper ads worked and what they meant to the growers," she said. "I explained the importance of packaging and of meeting the customers' packing and quality specifications."
Her career continued to grow as she met and interacted with more Northwest growers, tuning in to their concerns and needs.
And because her husband, Rich Rasmussen, had been partner with his brother Greg in Rasmussen & Sons for years, her understanding of growers also deepened.
"Growers are essentially independent, somewhat solitary individuals who have chosen a life that allows them a lot of personal control over what they plant, how they water and cultivate. But once those decisions are over and the crop is harvested, they then have to turn the crop over to a sales firm," Ms. McDonald said.
"The success or failure of their entire year can boil down to the skill of the produce sales firm they have selected. As the owner of Pacific Marketing International Inc., I never wanted to forget what an enormous leap of faith my growers made year after year, and I made a personal pledge not to disappoint them."
She added, "I have probably marketed crops for around 40 growers in Washington, Oregon and Canada."
Major changes came within the produce industry as PMI marketed for its grower group, and consolidation brought increased power to buying groups. "With this power came new concepts and totally new ways of doing business," Ms. McDonald said. "Prior to this consolidation trend, I would sometimes work with the same buyer for years; we developed a mutual understanding of each other."
She added that 20 years ago "I would be talking to a buyer who started out in the produce department of a grocery store and moved up the ladder."
However, in 2008's produce world, "I might be talking to a buyer who came from wine sales and has no knowledge of produce at all. I have been told by many of the large retailers that they have a policy of moving the buyers around so that they do not establish relationships with produce salespeople. How did I cope? By accepting the fact that you can't change what is not yours to change and by adapting to the changes and learning to not expect long- term relationships or the sense of partnering that was an integral part of the 'old produce industry.' "
Ms. McDonald said that she does miss some aspects of bygone industry days, but she also said that new approaches "breathe new life into a very old industry."
More young people are entering produce, "especially at the buying level," and many come without a background in the industry.
"I believe this may give them some advantage in looking at the industry in a whole new light," she said. "They are introducing ideas and innovation at record levels, and in many cases these are positive changes. The truth of the matter is that change is good but it is not always smooth. I believe that somewhere after this initial trial-and-error phase, we will end up with a better industry, and we will all benefit."
Even with so much to look back on, Pat McDonald did not hesitate to say that the most gratifying part of her career "was to work with growers year after year, to watch their farms and families grow, to have them tell me they had a new baby and then in what seemed like a few short years tell me they were sending the same baby off to college."
In short, she said, it was "to have the honor of having worked with such a wonderful group of growers."
Buyers "were also great, each so different and wonderful -- awe-inspiring, intriguing, funny, kind, grumpy, frustrated, dedicated, sweet and sometimes absolutely obnoxious. These same buyers have my highest respect. They work under tremendous workloads, and their days are long, frustrating and demanding. It was a never-ending joy to work with such a diverse group of people as well as a challenge."
So now what's next for Pat McDonald? It could be just about anything.
"The nice part is that unlike when you're a kid out of school and the future beckons and the landlord looms, I now have the time to watch a few sunsets and then jump off the next cliff," she said.
Ms. McDonald launched Pacific Marketing International in the Yakima, WA, area 18 years ago and handled a wide variety of items, with a focus on Washington asparagus.
In early March Ms. McDonald sold PMI to Rasmussen & Sons, one of the brokerage's two primary asparagus growers. Greg Rasmussen and his wife, Joel, are now sole owners of the farming operation, and the sales and marketing arm has been reorganized as Rasmussen Marketing.
As she adjusted to the departure from brokering and looked to what might come next in her life, Ms. McDonald said she is unlikely to retire completely.
"This is the most exciting part because I don't know what I want to do now, and I can't wait to find out," she said. "I don't feel ready to retire in the old 'hang-your-hat-up' style. I want to keep on the move and do something different."
Raised on a small livestock farm in Yakima, Ms. McDonald has strong ties to agriculture that began in her childhood.
"When I was eight years old, my parents gave each of my four siblings and me one cow and one ewe. We raised and sold our calves and lambs for spending money," she recalled. The youngsters were also "responsible for the labor on the farm, changing sprinklers, building fences, feeding all the livestock, cleaning barns and bucking hay."
As often happens, the girl left the farm. But the farm never completely left the girl.
"Twenty years ago I was working as the manager of a newspaper, and I was asked by a grower to review the r?sum?s that he had received from a produce industry headhunter in California. The position he was trying to fill was for a produce broker. When he decided that he did not like any of the applicants, he asked me if I was interested in the position. My first response was, 'How much does it pay?'" she said.
"I worked as his sales representative for two years and then formed my own produce brokerage firm, Pacific Marketing International Inc. My former employer and several other growers signed sales contracts with my firm, and I was off and running."
She said that early in her broker career, "it became obvious that Northwest produce growers, especially in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, did not have access to all of the services, machinery, information and resources other growing areas enjoyed. I became a founding member of the Washington Vegetable Association, which grew into the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association."
Trends, varieties and new equipment were constantly being examined, and the group held seminars on marketing as well.
Ms. McDonald herself gave talks on marketing in the produce industry at some of the association conventions, offering industry overviews from a marketing viewpoint.
"I explained how newspaper ads worked and what they meant to the growers," she said. "I explained the importance of packaging and of meeting the customers' packing and quality specifications."
Her career continued to grow as she met and interacted with more Northwest growers, tuning in to their concerns and needs.
And because her husband, Rich Rasmussen, had been partner with his brother Greg in Rasmussen & Sons for years, her understanding of growers also deepened.
"Growers are essentially independent, somewhat solitary individuals who have chosen a life that allows them a lot of personal control over what they plant, how they water and cultivate. But once those decisions are over and the crop is harvested, they then have to turn the crop over to a sales firm," Ms. McDonald said.
"The success or failure of their entire year can boil down to the skill of the produce sales firm they have selected. As the owner of Pacific Marketing International Inc., I never wanted to forget what an enormous leap of faith my growers made year after year, and I made a personal pledge not to disappoint them."
She added, "I have probably marketed crops for around 40 growers in Washington, Oregon and Canada."
Major changes came within the produce industry as PMI marketed for its grower group, and consolidation brought increased power to buying groups. "With this power came new concepts and totally new ways of doing business," Ms. McDonald said. "Prior to this consolidation trend, I would sometimes work with the same buyer for years; we developed a mutual understanding of each other."
She added that 20 years ago "I would be talking to a buyer who started out in the produce department of a grocery store and moved up the ladder."
However, in 2008's produce world, "I might be talking to a buyer who came from wine sales and has no knowledge of produce at all. I have been told by many of the large retailers that they have a policy of moving the buyers around so that they do not establish relationships with produce salespeople. How did I cope? By accepting the fact that you can't change what is not yours to change and by adapting to the changes and learning to not expect long- term relationships or the sense of partnering that was an integral part of the 'old produce industry.' "
Ms. McDonald said that she does miss some aspects of bygone industry days, but she also said that new approaches "breathe new life into a very old industry."
More young people are entering produce, "especially at the buying level," and many come without a background in the industry.
"I believe this may give them some advantage in looking at the industry in a whole new light," she said. "They are introducing ideas and innovation at record levels, and in many cases these are positive changes. The truth of the matter is that change is good but it is not always smooth. I believe that somewhere after this initial trial-and-error phase, we will end up with a better industry, and we will all benefit."
Even with so much to look back on, Pat McDonald did not hesitate to say that the most gratifying part of her career "was to work with growers year after year, to watch their farms and families grow, to have them tell me they had a new baby and then in what seemed like a few short years tell me they were sending the same baby off to college."
In short, she said, it was "to have the honor of having worked with such a wonderful group of growers."
Buyers "were also great, each so different and wonderful -- awe-inspiring, intriguing, funny, kind, grumpy, frustrated, dedicated, sweet and sometimes absolutely obnoxious. These same buyers have my highest respect. They work under tremendous workloads, and their days are long, frustrating and demanding. It was a never-ending joy to work with such a diverse group of people as well as a challenge."
So now what's next for Pat McDonald? It could be just about anything.
"The nice part is that unlike when you're a kid out of school and the future beckons and the landlord looms, I now have the time to watch a few sunsets and then jump off the next cliff," she said.
