Nogales, ARIZ.— The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA) held its annual membership meeting on May 11 in Nogales, Arizona. This year’s meeting had several significant highlights:
· Jaime Chamberlain of JC Distributing assumed the chairman position.
· Alejandro Canelos of Apache Produce Imports was elected to fill the position of chairman-elect.
· Members had the opportunity to meet the new FPAA president, Lance Jungmeyer, formerly Editor of The Packer.
· Finally, a slate of board directors was elected by the membership.
Jaime Chamberlain is the owner of JC Distributing in Nogales, Arizona and has been involved with the FPAA for many years as a member and a director on the board. Jaime spent two years as chairman-elect before moving into the chairman position during the annual meeting.
Alejandro Canelos of Apache Produce Imports in Nogales, Arizona has served on the FPAA board as the chairman of the FPAA tomato division and has been involved in the produce industry for many years.
Chris Ciruli, now the FPAA’s past-chairman, said, “The annual meeting is so important for us to be able to sit down as a group, discuss issues affecting the industry, and elect representatives to our board. Having worked closely with Jaime Chamberlain during my time as chairman, I can say that he is going to do fantastic things for this organization. The new chairman-elect, Alejandro Canelos, will bring a great amount of energy to this board, and I look forward to seeing all of the good things they are going to do for this industry.”
Ciruli added, “This year’s meeting is all the more important as we welcome Lance Jungmeyer into our family of importers, brokers, customhouse brokers, and allied industry members.”
Lance Jungmeyer, who started on May 10 as president of the FPAA, addressed members for the first time during the annual meeting.
“With Jaime, Alejandro and myself moving into leadership positions, there is a lot of new blood at the FPAA,” Jungmeyer said. “Our industry partners can expect a fresh, pragmatic approach. With food safety legislation in the works, we will take a proactive stance to ensure that imports receive fair treatment.”
The meeting concluded with the election of 7 distributor directors and two associate directors to the FPAA board. Ricardo Crisantes of Cris-P Produce was newly elected to the board of directors for a two-year term. Also joining the board after returning to Meyer, LLC is Jesse Driskill.
The following members were re-elected to a two-year term: Bobby Astengo of Prime Time International; TJ Bauer of L&M Companies; Bobby Benne of Ta-De Distributing; Martin Ley of Del Campo Supreme; and Bert Monteverde of H.M. Distributors.
Rod Sbragia of FoodSource-Nogales, and Chuck Thomas of Thomas Produce were re-elected for a one-year term.
The FPAA and its members rely on the commitment and expertise of their board of directors in advancing the goals of the membership.
Source: FPAA
