Overview
The Manager of Grower Relations position plays a key leading role in sourcing of olives from outside growers, ensuring “the right” high quality fruit is delivered to the Mill in a timely and cost effective manner. The Manager of Grower Relations serves as the liaison between the Company and its grower partners. This includes managing all existing grower relationships, cultivating new grower relationships, developing and implementing grower communication programs, evaluating grower orchards, communicating best agricultural practices, and coordinating and managing the harvest and delivery of grower fruit to mill. The Manger of Grower Relations is a member of the Ag Leadership Team.
The successful candidate will be very hands-on, working closely and collaboratively with the other members of the Ag & Mill Operations leadership team in executing the Company’s aggressive growth strategy through its outside grower supply requirements.
Job Function
- Develop and implement strategic and tactical plans for the Grower Relations department to ensure on-going and expanded supply of olives from existing and new outside growers.
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Develop all planning and budgeting for Grower Relations department operations.
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Evaluate and manage all grower contracts, agreements and partnerships.
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Transmit the Company’s crop quality requirements, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP’s) and best practices to its grower community, identifying state of the art production processes and industry learnings to all outside growers.
- Plan, coordinate, and control all communication efforts by the Company to its existing and emerging outside grower community.
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Evaluating ongoing grower crops/performance, and maintaining a data base related to crop attributes, production practices and grower performance.
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Coordinating the harvest and delivery of olives to the Mill and working across the organization to develop and execute the Annual Harvest Plan.
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Networking within the industry and serving as a representative of the Company in various Industry organizations and functions.
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Identifying and coordinating services and benefits the Company may provide to its grower community.
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Helping to evaluate new ranch and/or crop expansion opportunities.
- Contribute cross-functionally as a member of the Ag Leadership team.
Job Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy, Horticulture, Crop Science, Ag Business, or relevant discipline.
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Minimum of 5-8 years of Grower Relations experience, preferably with tree crops.
- A solid grounding in and knowledge of agricultural production methods.
- A mature knowledge of the sales and discovery process, effectively managing the sales cycle.
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Superior negotiation skills and strategic acumen.
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Strong ability to analyze data and make qualified judgements on results.
- A strategic thinker - and hands-on doer - with the knowledge, skills, experience and judgment to evaluate the existing and ongoing utilization/performance of outside growers’ orchards.
- Proven collaborative, negotiation, communication, and integrative skills that are effective at all levels of the organization from board room to all stakeholders – both internal and external.
- Demonstrated strong collaborative leadership and team-building expertise.
- Knowledge of super high density production practices prized and highly desirable.
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Ability to travel local and statewide to meet with outside growers, identify new growers and/or production regions, expanding the Company's presence.