In the seed industry, we tend to measure customer relationships commercially. We know the size of the account, its growth and its future potential. What is much harder to put on a spreadsheet is what you have learned from each other along the way.
Over time, I’ve come to see that as one of the most strategically valuable parts of a customer relationship.
At its core, the value comes from creating space to learn from each other. The best relationships give both sides room to be candid about what they are seeing, where things are changing and, importantly, what isn’t working. Stay in that conversation long enough and you build knowledge neither business could develop as effectively on its own.
That is something I have come to appreciate enormously in Ahern’s relationship with Rancho Los Pinos, which goes back more than four decades.
We held our 37th field day together in San Quintín this September. Years ago, it was much closer to what you might picture when I say “field day,” with just a small handful of varieties to evaluate. This year, growers and agronomists from near and impressively far attended the event to explore a wide range of genetics from more than a dozen seed brands.
To add extra value to the day, we brought in specialists to talk about virus pressure, macroeconomics, farm finances and U.S.-Mexico tomato trade. Rather than just being a showcase of variety options, the day has evolved into a place where growers, seed companies and other industry leaders come to compare what they are seeing and talk in candid depth about the risks and opportunities ahead.
One of the things I particularly appreciate about Los Pinos is how open they are. That is unusual. Growers can understandably be protective about which varieties they use, how they manage them and what they have learned. Los Pinos takes a different approach: they are willing to put genetics from multiple companies side by side and share what they are seeing.
And they do it in a production environment where limited water, salinity and high electrical conductivity put real pressure on a variety’s vigour and resilience without changing the commercial expectations for yield, quality and shelf life.
I stayed in San Quintin for two days after the field day because I wanted to keep listening. I spent many years working inside large companies, and one thing I learned is that we can have a strategy that makes perfect sense to everyone sitting around the table and still be wrong about what the customer needs.
You need people who know you well enough, and trust you enough, to tell you that.
Our industry sometimes underestimates how much better our decisions become when relationships last long enough for information to move honestly in both directions.
After nearly four decades, the value of our relationship with Los Pinos goes far beyond the seed they buy from us. We trust each other enough to be open, challenge each other and keep learning together. That is what partnership means to me: building a relationship where both sides grow, contribute and move forward together.
