One of the regular activities of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Nogales, AZ, is to hold seminars on various subjects that will help member companies to improve their businesses.

According to Allison Moore, director of legislative and regulatory affairs for FPAA, the association holds about eight such educational programs a year on a range of subjects, many of them in conjunction with the Eller College of Management, “which is the business school out of the University of Arizona.”

Professors and researchers from Eller come to Nogales and present sessions for produce company personnel such matters as sales, marketing, branding, and market forces, for example.

The programs are “good refreshers and idea generators” that help participants think about ways they can make improvements in their own companies.

The most recent educational program offered by the association was of a very practical nature. About a month-and-a-half ago, “we sponsored a learning session for distributors here to have their warehouse workers or anyone on their sales team” in which U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors presented a course on how to inspect and grade produce, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the association.

“They arranged different commodity items and said, ‘Here is how you grade it to a U.S. Number One spec,’“ he said. “That sort of thing helps the distributors here to deliver a quality box.” It enables them to better assure that the products they are receiving from Mexico will “make the grade.”

That type of program, designed to “try to help the people” in the industry in Nogales, is “something that we will be continuing on through this year as well,” Ms. Moore said.

The association works in many other ways to address industry issues and help its members meet the challenges they face in business. Helping to facilitate crossings at the port of entry is always a major focus, and one of the organization greatest successes has been in helping to bring about a major port expansion, now well under way.

“We are really excited that the construction on our new port continues to move forward,” Ms. Moore said. With the construction only partially complete, already the number of truck lanes has increased to eight from the previous four lanes. “It is good to see something that we worked on get done,” she said. The construction is “moving forward, still progressing as it is supposed to,” and “that is going to mean a lot not only for this town gut for places all across the country that rely on trade with Mexico to drive jobs and have businesses.”

An ongoing concern is whether staffing for the expanded port facility will be adequate. “We have had some small increases in staffing,” Ms. Moore said. Also, “we are really good at working with the local customs officer here to make sure that we are as efficient as we can be and they are as efficient as they can be. I think we have a good opportunity, moving forward, to address more of those staffing shortages.”

With Congress looking at immigration reform, there is opportunity to make the point that port of entry staffing is important.

“You really see people talking about job growth and ports of entry and how they are intricately tied together,” she said. “So I think we are able to push that a little bit easier up the mountain now.”