Dante Galeazzi, Texas International Produce Association

Dante Galeazzi has been leading the Texas International Produce Association BB #:162361 (TIPA) since 2017. The Mission, TX-based organization was founded in 1942 and represents more than 400 member companies across the region involved in the buying, selling, and shipping of fresh produce.

We connected with Dante to talk about TIPA as folks converge on San Antonio for this year’s Viva Fresh Produce Expo.  

Q: Tell us about your background, education, and early career aspirations.    

My grandfather and uncle grew fresh produce in the San Joaquin Valley of California, where I worked during the summers from the time I was 13 until going to college.

My first job was counting the onion sacks and moving the materials. I went on to graduate from California State University of Monterey Bay in 2006 and immediately went to work with C.H. Robinson Worldwide’s perishable transportation division. Within a year, I took a management role and moved to McAllen, TX to build a fresh produce transportation program in South Texas.

In 2010, I changed roles and began working fresh produce sales and special projects, including grower relations, which would span several South Texas grower-shipper-importers. I would handle items such as onions, grapefruit, honeydew, chile peppers, cabbage, and mangos.

In 2017, after having served on the board as a volunteer for nearly 9 years, I was hired for the position of president and CEO of TIPA.

Q: When you joined the Texas Produce Association (precursor to TIPA), did you see yourself leading the organization one day? 

Never. Not once did it occur to me, even when we began the search, did I consider myself a candidate.

It was the thoughtfulness of several incredible people who pushed me to consider the role, and I am forever thankful and humbled to have been chosen by that first board.

My career is a diversity of experiences and skills that have given me a unique and detailed understanding of the industry.

Q: How did your career up to that point prepare you to lead TIPA?

My career is a diversity of experiences and skills that have given me a unique and detailed understanding of the industry. I started in the fields, harvesting, and packing.

Then on to transporation, then produce sales, including exports, and finally special projects and grower relations which gave me a detailed purview on imports and foreign supplier relationships.

Not to mention my time as a volunteer leader with the TIPA board and many years of work leading up to Viva Fresh. I think my exposure to many different facets of the industry has prepared me to work on the issues we face in the region.

Q: Tell us about your responsibilities over an average week or month. How much time do you spend with member businesses? How often do you travel?

I don’t think my schedule is any less demanding than the rest of the industry. We’re hard workers who understand that fresh produce is an industry built on urgency.

I travel very often, typically two or more times per month. Funny enough, I completed this questionnaire from a hotel lobby in Vietnam, having finished a trade mission exploring interest for Texas grapefruit.

Intercontinental travel is very rare. [This was only my third international trip with TIPA]. Most of my travel is in-state. As anyone who’s familiar with Texas knows, it takes a long time to get from South Texas to other parts of the region. Going from McAllen to Laredo is several hours, and I do spend a lot of time in Austin, the Uvalde area, and Houston.

I try to spend at least 30 to 40 percent of my time visiting with members. I wish my schedule allowed for more because it’s what really helps me understand their issues and how I can position TIPA to be of the most service to them.

The most enjoyable part is easy: it’s when we reach a solution and I see how much it helps the industry.

Q: What’s the most difficult part of your job? The most enjoyable?

The most difficult part is wanting to help on every issue, but recognizing TIPA’s bandwidth requires staying focused on key issues—“our lane” as it’s better known.

For example, I’ve spent a lot of time working on water infrastructure needs for the South Texas region, pushing for a regional water authority that can focus on this issue daily.

This is why having good partnerships outside the industry is so important; TIPA is a part of the equation and working with partner groups who are fresh produce-adjacent gives us more bandwidth. The other difficult part is many issues take so long to fix and keeping different entities focused on resolutions is a real struggle.

The most enjoyable part is easy: it’s when we reach a solution and I see how much it helps the industry.

There’s nothing worse than thinking companies are faced with issues beyond their control or being treated unfairly through no fault of their own. I hope for TIPA to be the voice of our region’s industry in addressing these issues.

Q: What are the most common challenges faced by TIPA members?

Tough to say because there are so many different challenges, but I think in general it’s compliance issues from bad regulations because government often creates laws in a vacuum, without consulting industry on the impacts.

Q: Do you see today’s issues as more acute than in previous years?

I feel like it changes all the time. Some issues, like trade policy, are an obvious yes. Meanwhile others, like food safety regulation, are currently less so.

Trade policy is felt very acutely in Texas, since our region crosses more than 50 percent of fresh produce imports from Mexico.

Q: What would you consider the three most critical challenges facing the industry in Texas? How do they differ from the rest of the country?

Trade policy is felt very acutely in Texas, since our region crosses more than 50 percent of fresh produce imports from Mexico.

Water shortages are another, because it’s not only U.S. growers that are limited in their production; we’re seeing similar water challenges throughout Mexico.

Finally, urbanization has become a huge issue. As the state grows with more than 1,000 new citizens daily, we feel the pressures of increasing land prices, local tax rates increasing by double-digits, and the need to quickly grow infrastructure like roadways and power to keep up.

Q: Regarding the flow of water from the Rio Grande River, where do things stand currently?

Thanks to the current administration, we’re seeing more positive progress on this issue than at any time in the last 30 years. Water is still very limited, but our hope is to codify the new relationship into a meaningful system that sees adherence moving forward and creates a path to stability for water in the region.

Q: Let’s talk about Viva Fresh, launched in 2015 – has it evolved from a regional trade show? What do you consider its most critical functions?

Viva Fresh has purposely not evolved beyond a regional trade show. It exists with the simple pillars of focusing on the importance of nutrition, the uniqueness of the region, and providing meaningful networking opportunities while maintaining the region’s unique brand of hospitality. Viva Fresh exists for the region.

I struggle to compare Viva Fresh against other expos, because I think each expo provides something different and unique.

Q: How is this year’s show different than other industry expos?

I struggle to compare Viva Fresh against other expos, because I think each expo provides something different and unique.

I do know what our goal at Viva Fresh is and remains to be: it’s highlighting the Tex-Mex fresh produce corridor and doing so in such a way that it encourages our industry to continue growing and providing the best tasting and most diverse offering of fresh produce possible.

Q: How do measure ROI from such a gathering?

Easy question. It’s how attendees measure the ROI. Did they see the people they needed to see? Did they get new business from the event? Did people learn more about the region? Did the event drive people to do more in the Tex-Mex corridor? If the answer to those questions is ‘yes,’ then that’s success.