Variable Rate done RIGHT with SWAT MAPS: https://swatmaps.com/
ProducePay: https://producepay.com/
Today's episode features ProducePay founder Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck. Born and raised in a 4th generation farming family from Mexico, Pablo brings over 20 years of experience in the fresh produce industry. After growing up on the family farm – Campos Borquez, a premier supplier of fresh asparagus and grapes to the United States and Canada – Pablo went on to work for The Giumarra Companies, managing grower relations in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and the United States. Pablo returned to the family farm as Chief Financial Officer, then went on to complete his MBA at Cornell University, where the idea of ProducePay was started, founded and launched.
Last year the company announced that longtime board member and advisor Patrick McCullough would take over as CEO, and Pablo moved at that time into the role of Executive Director of the board. But as you’ll hear in this interview he is just as energized as ever about their mission and their future.
We talk about the challenges of the produce trade and why there is so much waste and so many intermediaries involved, why he thinks there in a position to create a better model, what role financial technology has in their ability to pull it off, how interest rates and investor sentiment impact companies like ProducePay, and how his transition has been from founder to CEO to board director.
There’s a lot to this story but a good place to start is acknowledging that we all want quality produce to be at the store every time we show up, whether its in season locally or not. For that to happen, there’s a lot of people involved around the world, and a lot of waste along the way. ProducePay may have started as a way to better capitalize farmers, but now they have their focus on how they can help those farmers manage price risk.
And the guy who started it all is today’s guest, Pablo Borquez.
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FoA 341: California Cotton and Climate Coalition with Cannon Michael and Rebecca Burgess
FoA 340: Building farm-ready robots with Hunter Jay of Ripe Robotics
FoA 339: Carbon neutral foods with Ann Radil and Jim Jarman of Neutral
FoA 338: Animal Feed as a Food Waste Solution with Justin Kamine of Do Good Foods
FoA 337: Synthetic biology for nature-based and data-driven farming with Travis Bayer and Adam Litle of Sound Agriculture
FoA 336: Agtech for grain marketing and risk management with Dakota Hoben of Farmers Risk
FoA 335: Farming isn't natural, but it can be more sustainable with Alex Smith of the Breakthrough Institute
FoA 334: Cybersecurity in Agribusiness with Mike Moore of Ever.Ag
FoA 333: Farm Labor Challenges in Specialty Crops with Mike and April Clayton of Red Apple Orchards
FoA 332: Field Information Infrastructure with Dan Rooney, Ph.D. of LandScan
FoA 331: Building Local Frozen Fruit Supply Chains with Alex Piasecki of Seal the Seasons
FoA 330: 10 Former Guests That Have Been Acquired...and what we can learn from them
FoA 329: Predictive Analytics for Soil Biology with Mike Tweedy of Pattern Ag
FoA 328: Value Added Processing with Darren Bondar of Hempalta and Chris Theal of Phyto Organix
FoA 327: Plant Breeding's Past, Present and Future with Marcel Bruins, Ph.D.
FoA 326: Regenerative Agriculture in Specialty Crops with Silas Rossow of California Ag Solutions
FoA 325: Electrified and Distributed Fertilizer Production with Nico Pinkowski of Nitricity
FoA 324: Dry Farmed Orchards, Wild and Heritage Apples and Natural Cidermaking with Brendan Barnard of Posterity Ciderworks
FoA 323: The Changing Venture Capital Landscape with Mark Blackwell of Builders VC
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