Grower-Shipper Association of Central California appoints new board

The Grower-Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) recently appointed Victor Ramirez of NorCal Harvesting as its new vice-chair and Greg Beach of Steinbeck Country Produce as its secretary.

In addition, Chad Amaral, vice president at D’Arrigo Bros. Co. in California, Kristina Nunes, food safety and sustainability director at Nunes Company, Inc. and John Wilkinson, co-founder of Blazer Wilkinson LP were appointed to the GSA Board of Directors.

Ramirez has been a member of the GSA Board since 2018. He is a third-generation strawberry farmer and grew up working alongside his parents and six siblings where he learned the technical aspects of farming and gained a deep-rooted understanding and respect for the life of farmworkers. Ramirez and his brother founded NorCal Harvesting in 1995 and Bayview Farms in 1999.

“Victor has served on GSA’s Board during an exceptionally challenging time,” said Christopher Valadez, president of GSA in a news release. “From food safety events to the pandemic, the Board’s counsel and leadership have helped GSA to confront those challenges to the benefit of our members and the farmers and farm workers we serve. Victor’s knowledge and expertise has been an integral part of that leadership and we look forward to his enhanced role on the Board as vice-chair.”

Beach has spent his entire produce career with Steinbeck and is currently their vice president of sales. He was appointed to the GSA Board this year. In fact, all new board members are from family-operated produce farming and shipping companies.

“We welcome the new Board members and we know the organization will benefit from their insights and perspectives as we work to achieve our mission, which is to advance families, food and farming in our region,” said Valadez.

GSA also thanks board members whose terms have concluded including Rod Braga of Braga Fresh, Pat Collins with Naturipe, Tom Nunes with Nunes Company and Allan Clark of Merrill Farms.

“The work and time they have given to GSA through staff transitions, food safety challenges and the pandemic was formative and helped us evolve, grow and advance our mission and I want to personally express my thanks to each of them,” said Valadez.