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From international trade regulation to the domestic impact of cyclical low almond prices, the Almond Board of California covered many topics on their recent trip to D.C.
Join Brandon Rebiero, our Co-Founder and Head of Farming, as he speaks with Tim Hammerich on the Almond Board of California’s podcast, The Almond Journey. The podcast covers a few key topics:
Transcript
Tim Hammerich:
Today on the Almond Journey Podcast...
Brandon Rebiero:
They're definitely getting our message and obviously it's a big ship and slow to turn, but I felt pretty confident that we're doing everything within our bandwidth to affect change.
Tim Hammerich:
Almond Board Director and grower Brandon Rebiero reports back from a recent Almond Board trip to Washington, D.C. Hey, welcome back to the Almond Journey Podcast, brought to you by the Almond Board of California. This is a show where we discover how growers, handlers, and other stakeholders are making things work in their operations to drive the almond industry forward. I'm your host, Tim Hammerich, and I get to travel up and down the valley virtually, in this case, to feature those leaders who are finding innovative ways to improve their operations, connect with our communities and advance the almond industry. Today we visit with Modesto-based Brandon Rebiero who is the co-founder and head of farming at Gold Leaf Farming. Brandon and his co-founder Jack McCarthy started the company just back in 2017, and today they farm around 12,000 acres of mostly almonds but also some pistachios. Brandon spends a lot of his time focused on the company's farm strategy and executing their agronomy playbook as well as conducting due diligence on new properties and building relationships throughout the industry.
He's also just wrapping up his first year of a three-year term on the Almond Board of California Board of Directors, and it's in that capacity that took him on a recent trip to Washington, D.C. On behalf of the industry, he went there alongside Richard Waycott, Alexi Rodriguez, Julie Adams, Jonathan Hoff and Brock Densel. So today we're going to talk about his almond journey and that journey also to Washington, D.C. where they met with several leaders, regulators, and other key partners to discuss relevant issues impacting the almond industry. Brandon gives his impressions of the trip and one particularly exciting highlight that I won't spoil for you just yet. We'll also talk about what's next for the Almond Board of Directors, what he's looking forward to and why he's excited about the new incoming CEO, Clarice Turner. First though, I asked Brandon about his journey that ultimately led him to Gold Leaf Farming and how they as a company have been able to grow to such a scale in just six short years.
Brandon Rebiero:
I grew up on a family farm on my grandfather's 30-acre orchard here in Modesto. Loved farming, very passionate about it at a young age, got blisters from hoeing weeds to polling almonds to learning how to drive tractor. Later, went on to Cal Poly to study agronomy and came back and always wanted to farm, but obviously 30 acres at my grandfather's was not enough to make a living off of. Also, it was his, by the way, not mine. So I just had to figure out a way to do it on my own. I started as an agronomist, PCA, and then started a farm management company all the while making some small orchard acquisitions of my own, some leases.
Then my brother and I bought our first orchard in 2014, and then I started Gold Leaf in 2017. So basically, what we do is we allow other partners to invest with us. So my co-founder, Jack McCarthy runs that side of the business, running the business and the capital management and growth. I run the farming side, so I guess we're different in that sense. So the reason we grew so fast is because in addition to me and Jack, we have a team of about 80 folks in the field and in the back office, and then we also have other passive partners who will invest capital in our orchards, and that's what's really helped us grow quickly.
Tim Hammerich:
Well, talk about becoming a director at the Almond Board. How long have you been on the board and what prompted your willingness to serve the industry in that way?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, so I'm just about to finish my first year on a three-year seat. Prior to this, I was an alternate. I think that was really helpful for me. I was a one-year alternate and that just gave me an opportunity to observe, participate somewhat, but really observe and listen and get a sense of the landscape before coming on as a full board member. I would recommend that to anyone just to get that early exposure before you jump in. Now that I was elected as a board member, I feel tremendous responsibility on behalf of the industry. My livelihood is 100% dependent on the success of the almond industry, so I feel it, it matters a lot.
Me and my brother still have a small family farm. My grandfather is 89 and still has his 30-acre almond orchard, does everything himself, by the way, does not allow me and my brother to help him out. Most of my family members are in the almond business and they're small growers. So I feel it from both sides, from the family legacy perspective of the importance of keeping the family farm together and intact. Then I also feel it in my current role at Gold Leaf Farming. So I'm passionate about the industry. It's in my heart. That makes it easy to want to advocate and do everything we can on the board of directors.
Tim Hammerich:
What do you think it is about farming that does get into your blood like that? For you being so passionate about it from such a young age and your grandfather on the other side being so passionate about it still after he is been doing it for so long, what do you think it is?
Brandon Rebiero:
I've never asked a psychologist that question, but my sense is, I guess I have two instincts on that. One is, it's nature versus nurture. At a young age, I always wanted to be outside in the orchard on tractors, in the equipment. My brother and I have a cousin a couple of years younger than us, and she had no interest whatsoever at a young age, and that rang true throughout her life. Her sister, on the other hand, showed interest early on, and now she's in that industry. So I think a big part of it is you have it or you don't. The other part I would say is just the gratification in seeing the fruits of your labor, literally. I'm a pretty tangible person, and I need to see results extroverted. I need to be out where the action is, not stuck in the office. I think that is just a very, very rewarding and tangible lifestyle. The sweat that you put in, you see the outcome at the end of the year, but I think that's addicting.
Tim Hammerich:
I understand so as part of your responsibility to the board, you took a trip out to D.C. Could you maybe talk about what was the purpose of that trip and just a little bit about how it went?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah. I was honestly pretty amazed by the trip to Washington, D.C. We were hosted by Julie Adams and Brock, both of which set up a pretty amazing rock solid agenda with no time wasted in between. So really, the purpose was to just educate the stakeholders as to what we're feeling in the industry. So my role on that trip was as a grower, what are some real grower economics? And to let them know that a normal break even cost per pound on almonds is $1.90 or $2.00. Almonds right now are give or take, $1.70, $1.75, so we're losing money. It's painful, and that's sustainable for one year. But now we're going on year two or three of this losing money, cash burn mode.
So I shared that simple grower economics and the impact of growers losing money and the downstream effect that has on communities. We employ a lot of people as an industry, so you can only cut so many things. You try to save jobs as a very last resort of cost-cutting. I think it starts with things like fertility and plant protection, and then that's been going on for a couple of years and cost reductions. Then lastly, you look at headcount reductions and a lot of growers are going to be faced with that. So that certainly is a very negative impact of something we're feeling in our local communities. I shared that out with some of the congressmen and other stakeholders who we met with.
PART 1 OF 4 ENDS [00:09:04]
Brandon Rebiero:
... Congressman and other stakeholders who we met with. And we talked a lot about the tariffs that the industry is currently facing and how that's really hurting us from a trade perspective where other countries who have almost no tariffs have a huge advantage over our shipping constraints right now.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. And can you give us some examples of the types of people you met with? And I'm curious, what was their reaction?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, so I was actually amazed at how much they knew about our business, our industry, and everything we're dealing with, like shocked. I'm not a DC guy, I'm not a politician, and I don't know what to expect, but being out here and just reading about it, I just thought, this is going to be a mess. It's going to be worse than I ever thought. I actually came back quite surprised and quite relieved. The reason I say that is Julie Adams and her team, they spend a ton of time relationship building, maintaining relationships, and keeping all these politicians basically up to speed on what we're faced with. And I can tell you almost every meeting we went into, congressmen, folks at the USDA, folks at the FDA, everyone knew Julie by first name. So she's been spending years and years building these relationships, expanding the network, and I left those meetings feeling very proud of our industry.
I really think that we're an outlier and we stand out amongst many of the other crop groups or crop organizations that go to DC. And it crossed my mind, at one point the meetings were pretty quick, and we had a couple of these hallway meetings because these congressmen were so busy. We had some hallway meetings, it was crowded, and I just thought, man, this guy has to meet with 10 almond board equivalents in a day. And I just thought about the professionalism of our group and the Almond Board of California as a whole, because these folks really knew our issues prior to us even being there. There was a lot of acknowledgement of like, yes, I've heard that, and they backed it up with facts and statistics, and they're definitely getting our message. They're hearing it, and obviously it's a big ship and slow to turn, but I felt pretty confident that we're doing everything within our bandwidth to affect change.
Speaker 1:
That's fantastic. Yeah. And were all these California representatives, congressmen, or who'd you meet with there?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, primarily California. We met with Dwarty, John Dwarty. We met with Josh Harder. We met with Jim Costa. There's a few I am missing. Those are the big ones. And we met with the heads of trade. We met with the heads of the USDA, the heads of NAS, the heads of the FDA, but the stakeholders and the scheduling was well planned out. We met with the right people. I would say that one of the highlights of the trip was we met with the ambassador to India, and it was sort of random because Modi was in town the week we were there, just by chance. It was his first trip to the US, to the White House. And we actually got a call the day before as a voicemail from... Richard got the call on his cell phone. It was the ambassador to India. We kind of thought it was a prank.
How can this be? This is pretty odd. So we went to breakfast with him, had a great breakfast meeting with him, and he talked about all the work he was doing to get the retaliatory tariffs lifted in India and acknowledge that Julie had been working on this for quite some time and sort of left it at that. And then a couple days later after the state dinner with Modi, the announcement came out to the press that the retaliatory tariffs had been lifted in India. Just by chance, we happened to be there that week. So that was really cool.
Speaker 1:
That is awesome. Wow. What did you learn about how those conversations go in DC as far as, is it pretty much you sit down, you share what you came there to say about the industry, they respond, or what's the dynamic?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, so as an outsider, I was amazed at how many staffers sort of run those offices. Those are the gatekeepers. There's a saying in DC that I picked up on more than once at like, "Hey, there's a bunch of 20 year olds running this country," because these congressmen and senators, they just have all these young staffers and they're sharp. They're sharp people. I don't mean to diminish any of their contributions, but that was an eyeopener for me in the sense that a lot of them are the gatekeepers of who gets to see and schedule appointments. The chief of staff, all these folks, they're young. So that was pretty eyeopening. And then during these meetings, either a chief of staff or a staffer is present and really taking all the notes so that the politician we're speaking with can engage and think and have effective dialogue. And I think it was relieving to see someone there actually scribing this and taking the notes.
So it's not just like rhetoric, like, okay, yeah, I'm going to shake hands and kiss babies and then go on to the next thing. I felt like there was going to be, and there is going to be good follow up. So it was, here's our issues. I thought we were a very well-oiled machine in terms of here's what Brandon's going to share, here's what Richard's going to share. Alexi, Jonathan, here's all the points we want to hit to make sure we're educating them on the right issues. And I felt good about a lot of the questions that came back to us as a means of clarity. So it wasn't just us talking and vomiting a bunch of complaints. There was actually constructive dialogue and the questions back to us were good. So I was surprised by that.
Speaker 1:
And how many total went on the trip from the almond board?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, it was Richard, Julie, Barack, Jonathan, Alexi, and myself. So six.
Speaker 1:
Well, and you've kind of alluded to this route, but to try to sum up your takeaway from the trip and what you would tell others in the almond industry that weren't there about what's happening in DC, what are your big takeaways?
Brandon Rebiero:
It's not as big of a mess as I thought it was, and I probably had the bar pretty low admittingly. One of the big takeaways is I would say this administration has not been that focused on fighting retaliatory tariffs. That's not a political opinion, that's just a fact. That hasn't been their focus. Their focus and what gets their attention is the economic impact on local communities, not the big trade wars. So I guess that's good and bad, but I think they're coming around now, maybe because we're coming up on an election year perhaps, but the fact that we were there and we saw progress with the India retaliatory tariffs being lifted, that was a good sign. It's been a long fight for Julie and your team to just make them aware and educate them on what we're feeling. But broadly speaking, they haven't been that focused on that. But they care a lot about the economic impact in the local communities. So I think there's hope there because the strife is real.
As ag being the biggest economy in California, if growers keep losing money, they're going to have to lay people off. And the downstream effect on people in the state not having as much spending power is going to be significant. So that certainly is getting their attention.
Speaker 1:
Great. Well, thank you for sharing all that. I mean, it sounds like a great trip on many fronts, but cool that you were there the week of that announcement.
Well, looking forward here to continued board involvement, what's top of mind for you going forward in your board of directors capacity?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, I think we're going to be transitioning to a new CEO. I was on the search committee with I think about five other folks, and it's been a long process and we're very-
PART 2 OF 4 ENDS [00:18:04]
Brandon Rebiero:
... And it's been a long process and we're very excited about the new CEO coming on board. So, I think that's going to be a big focus early on, is making sure she's up to speed and can sort of get some roots in the industry, travel the state, meet lots of growers, meet lots of processors, lots of haulers, and really make the connection and help her get focused in the areas that matter most and prioritize her focus in the highest impact areas.
And then, I think continuing to educate the key stakeholders of trade barriers and retaliatory tariffs on how that's really just hurting our ability to ship into countries like India and China. I think also, setting strategic goals. We have a strategic retreat where we set the goals for the board and for staff and the CEO. So, making sure there's good alignment there and that we continue to focus on growing the demand side of the equation. That's really what we need to focus on. We have good nutrition research that fuels marketing. And then, from marketing, we need to make sure we're targeting the right areas.
I'm pretty excited about Project Thea, which is a Deloitte study that was conducted about 10 years ago, and we've since relaunched that to make sure that we're focusing on the right markets to continue growing the demand side of the equation. And then, I think ultimately making sure that growers' assessment dollars are being spent in the highest impact activities. As we look at the budget, there should be a very obvious and strong return on investment wherever grower dollars are being allocated.
Tim Hammerich:
That's great. You got a lot of work ahead of you.
Well, given that the announcement just came out, is there anything you can tell us that you're most excited about Clarice's leadership as she takes over that role later this year?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah, I would say Clarice, quite frankly, is amazing. It was a very long search, a very lengthy list of candidates. It took a lot of filters and funnels to narrow it down. And I think what I'm most excited about is her outside perspective coming into this industry. She worked at Pepsi in a senior marketing role, Starbucks in the senior role actually reporting directly to Howard Schultz, and Joseph Phelps Winery, and there were some other senior positions in there.
But her focus in all these positions has been growth. She may have had different titles in marketing, all senior roles, but her objective was growth, "How do you grow a business?" And to me that's really industry-agnostic. She needs to know the basics of our industry and how almonds sort of function in this global system, but really the fundamentals of trying to grow a business remain the same. So, she's got a proven track record in all the places she's been.
In fact, one of the things I remember from an early conversation, it was her idea at Starbucks to start serving breakfast and she got pushback from others on the board and senior executives. And obviously, she was persistent and it worked out, and it ended up being a pretty good decision.
So, I'm excited about the fresh perspective and the new ideas she's going to bring to the table. I also think she's just a great person and her ability to lead is just going to come really natural. She, she's going to maintain good culture at the board, and I think people will naturally just want to gravitate towards her and support her.
Tim Hammerich:
Well, exciting times. I mean, you picked a really pivotal time to be on the board, and so it's cool to hear what's happening behind the scenes, so to speak.
Before we wrap up here though, Brandon, anything... I always like to ask for some way to put punctuation on the episode, maybe your TED Talk to the industry, so to speak. What would be your kind of say-to-the-industry message to other growers and industry stakeholders out there that we could share to close out today's episode?
Brandon Rebiero:
Yeah. Hey, I get it. Almond prices are terrible. They've been terrible for a couple of years. I remain extremely bullish on the long game for almonds. My livelihood depends on it, and I am all in committed to almonds, not making any pivots out of this industry by any stretch. We're at a trough in the pricing cycle. I think supply will continue to diminish, Sigma is an example of one of the drivers. And I think global demand is going to continue to grow, in particular in some of these emerging markets. Countries like India and China were just scratching the surface. And as their populations move into the middle class and above, their purchasing power and their desire to have a healthy stable protein source is just going to increase.
So, I think it's easy to get caught up in the current state. But when you think about it, we have all these economic headwinds that are really hurting this industry. But at the end of the day, we have a great product that we're proud of. It's a noble deeded to be a grower and grow a healthy product that is supply constrained, 80% grown in California, and you're not going to see some new growing area suddenly just double the acres.
So, the long and short of it is it's painful now. I feel it. I get it. But I think, the long game, it's a great business to be in.
Tim Hammerich:
Well, encouraging message there to wrap up that interview with Brandon. I hope you appreciated his willingness to share those experiences in DC and the insights into how he's approaching his role with the board today and into the future. Thank you very much to Brandon for being on the show.
Now that work of building relationships and communicating about issues that impact the almond industry is extremely important, not just in that week in DC but year-round, as you just heard from Brandon. And that's also the focus of today's ABC update.
As you just heard, that experience in DC could not have been possible without the year-round efforts of Julie Adams and her Global Technical and Regulatory Affairs team, at the Almond Board of California. Julie says trips like that one that Brandon just took are the culmination of a lot of work that happens year-round to deal with issues that impact both the production side of the almond industry and the ability for almonds to move into different markets.
Julie Adams:
What we are normally dealing with, and this is really across the entire team, is trying to stay in front of the issues that are going to impact growers, whether it's dealing with new regulatory requirements or if it's looking overseas, stuck consignments, new requirements for pesticide approvals. It could be any number of things when you're shipping to 100 countries.
So, what we tend to do is try and form relationships, partnerships, and really good networks to hear what's coming up so we can be kind of an early warning system for the industry and, to the extent possible, head things off before they become issues. And that's really, I'd say, the challenge for us.
Tim Hammerich:
Yeah, and I know Brandon said the highlight of the trip was hearing the announcement about the Indian tariffs. I know that's an issue that has been on the radar for a long time. Could you maybe give us a little bit more of the behind the scenes of that and what led to, ultimately, that announcement that week?
Julie Adams:
Yeah, I think India really is a good example of what happens where almonds and ag, I mean, we were not part of a lot of the political issues that were going on. I mean, this was really about steel and aluminum, but agriculture often becomes a player in the decisions that go on. And so, when the US implemented additional tariffs back in 2018, India announced retaliatory tariffs and they looked at a number of commodities including almonds.
And so, when they had announced they were going-
PART 3 OF 4 ENDS [00:27:04]
Julie Adams:
... [inaudible 00:27:00] almonds. And so when they had announced they were going to put these additional duties in place, they didn't go into effect right away. It took about a year. But at that same time, we were watching what was going to happen, how that was going to impact shipments to our largest export market. But we were also watching the fact that Australia, our biggest competitor, was also actively negotiating their own trade agreement with India. And so the duties went into place on California at about the same time that Australia finalized their trade agreement with India. So our duties went up and Australia actually was going to enjoy a 50% cut in the duties. So really a difficult time. And we were pulling together a lot of information on the economic impact, what this was going to mean to industry members shipping to India, how it was putting us at a disadvantage.
And so that's a lot of what Brandon was talking about on this trip is putting a face, putting an economic statement on what these decisions mean. So we were following this for a while and keeping it front and center with key negotiators, with government officials so that they knew what this meant to the industry. So we were very happy when Modi was on his first state visit, and among the items that they wanted to announce included almonds. So we weren't the only retaliatory duty that was removed, but we were probably one of the most prominent. And so it was definitely good news. And having that happen when you have an industry delegation there, was just icing on the cake, really.
Tim Hammerich:
Yeah. How exciting... I mean, that's great news. And I know one thing Brandon said multiple times was how surprised he was that people in Washington, D.C. had a sense of what was happening in the almond industry. And I know definitely a lot of that is as a result of the efforts of you and your team. On a day-to-day basis, how do you make sure that's happening? What does that look like from a practical standpoint?
Julie Adams:
Well, it really is fundamental to what we do. And I would say I am very fortunate. The team that is working on these issues here, dealing with global technical regulatory affairs, we all have very different but complimentary skill sets. So with all of us and all the different expertise, it's about really maintaining relationships, but more importantly, being viewed as a resource for fact-based information. And that's largely what we're doing regularly, is staying in touch with these offices, trying to provide solutions as well as highlighting what some of the issues are that are going on. And I think importantly... And this is probably what we don't highlight enough, telling the positive stories about what the industry is doing. Because quite often when you're in DC, when you're on The Hill, when you're in USDA, they're hearing the problems, but not the positive solutions and things that the industry is doing.
So a lot of what we're also relaying is the demand building activities, the investments we're making in marketing, nutrition research, all of those things that really make almonds a leader. We're making sure that's part of the conversation that we're having with a lot of folks in DC and around the world. Probably one of the... I'd say the biggest wins we've had this past year, had to do with China and their new facility registration requirements. Keith, with his knowledge and with the relationships and understanding of China jumped on that, we almost became an early warning system to FDA and USDA about what was going on. He worked very closely with both of those agencies in finding solutions to the registration requirements. And in the end, we did not see consignments stuck, which we were really worried about. We got in front of the registration where all of the handlers that needed to get registered did get registered before the deadline. So those are the kinds of things that we'll work on a lot. And when it works, it just makes you feel great. And more importantly, the industry members know somebody has their back too when they're dealing with a lot of these issues.
Tim Hammerich:
Absolutely. Well, I really appreciate this. I always find what you do really interesting, and I appreciate you sharing all of it. Anything else though, that we should include in a short report about this trip to DC and everything that's happening with your team?
Julie Adams:
I'd say the most important part of it is, we know it's a big time commitment, but the payoff is amazing. So having industry members on this trip who are able to talk about the real on the ground impacts of things that are going on. I mean, we can go in and talk about all of these issues. We can build the relationships, but nothing is going to be as compelling as a grower talking about having to pull out some trees so that the rest of their operation can survive, or how much it costs them to bring a container back from Europe because of a testing requirement. So those are the kinds of things that folks in DC or overseas or anywhere that we're dealing with, really, that's what they need to understand.
Tim Hammerich:
Well, thank you very much, Julie, for providing today's ABC update about the work you and your team are doing for the almond industry. And if you're listening to this and you're at all interested in becoming more involved with technical and regulatory affairs or global market development, the Almond Board of California does have committees for both of those areas. I highly encourage you to go visit the website to learn more about how you might get more involved in one of those committees or others, and we'll leave a link to that committee's page of the almonds.com website directly in the show notes for today's episode.
We here at the Almond Journey podcast, believe everyone in the almond industry has a story of their own, of how they're making things work on their farms or in their jobs. Hearing the voices of industry leaders, people like Brandon Rebiero may spark a connection or an idea that you can use in your own journey. And that's why we want to feature these stories of innovation, resilience, and community here on this podcast. I hope you'll come along for the ride by subscribing or following this show on your podcast platform of choice, and please pass it along to someone else in the industry so we can all share in this almond journey together.
PART 4 OF 4 ENDS [00:34:08]
