AREC supply chain tour 2024

On a crisp early morning in April 2024, AREC undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff began a road trip to travel to Nogales, Arizona for the department’s annual Supply Chain Tour. The year’s tour included visits to three host sites.  Each participant learned about agribusiness operations from each host site’s perspective.  The day was spent witnessing their operational tours and conversing with each organization’s representatives. Read here about the host sites visited and the knowledge that was shared from experienced business owners to students. 

The tour kicked off at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Mariposa Port of Entry. Why do we tour CBP? After proper vetting was completed in advance, participants were welcomed by U.S. CBP agents and escorted to the commercial freight docking and inspection area of the Port. Agents informed the group of the entire inspection process and how trucks are examined for contraband and pests, as well as view samples of removed contraband goods. CBP agents work closely with USDA officials to determine if any harmful pests found are on the prohibited list. As stated on the CBP website, "Invasive species and toxic substances are among the many threats to American agriculture and natural resources. Through targeting, detection, and interception, CBP agriculture specialists (CBPAS) work to prevent these threats from entering the United States." 

The next stop for the group was the Divine Flavor Warehouse. The group was welcomed by a warehouse manager, who guided the group on a tour of several spaces within the warehouse to learn how products complete their rounds through the distribution warehouse. With his years of experience shared on the tour, the group learned the why, the process, and the functions they utilize towards the ultimate goal of maintaining the highest quality and freshness in packaging before being further distributed across the United States. Divine Flavor prides itself on a ‘Six Pillars Promise’: quality, food safety, social responsibility, traceability, sustainability, and organics.  Their website reads, “We are a company which believes our customers deserve the best of what they buy, growing products they can trust, and they know it has been grown ethically by passionate workers who are treated with respect.” 

The third and final stop for the Supply Chain Tour was MAS Melons & Grapes Warehouse originated and owned and operated by Miguel A. Suarez. Mr. Suarez warmly welcomed the group with informative resources and tips on how he began his business, and how they continue to succeed in partnerships around the globe, with a long-standing presence in Japan. Miguel’s sons joined us for the roundtable discussion along with providing refreshing watermelon samples. Alek Suarez, an AREC alum, gave an enthusiastic tour of the MAS warehouse and the products ready for distribution. Alek was kind enough to provide a tour of his emerging microgreens agribusiness, pictured below. 

Danielle Buhrow, AREC academic advisor commented, “It’s fantastic to see an AREC alum returning to an agribusiness to apply the academic side to the global scale and within their local community.” 

Overall, the group learned how agricultural products are inspected at the point of entry to the U.S. and kept moving along the supply chain. Agribusiness truly is from seeds to sales, farms to factories, turf to transport to table.