Jose Caceres

Background

About Jose Caceres

Many years ago, back in Peru which is the country I came from 18 years ago, the part that I disliked the most about my trips to the grocery store was shopping for fresh produce. Years later I became a produce buyer, so that thing that I didn't like to do became my livelihood. Soon after beginning my first job as a produce buyer, and as I learned more about the industry, I completely fell for it; so began a very long love affair that is still alive and strong to this day.From there, I occupied various positions within the industry and became more and more passionate about it. I enjoyed tremendously when people would ask me about what I did for a living -"I work in the produce industry", at that point, and almost without exception, they would start asking questions about why avocados are so expensive or why lettuce looks so bad right now, etc. I particularly remember a conversation with a customer that later would become a good friend of mine, while talking to him about chopped romaine - I don't know if it was my tone of voice or hand gestures - but at the end, he said,"man, you really love this stuff, don't you?"It seems that produce - even though not an everyday/front and center topic, is very important to folks everywhere. It has been a very challenging, sometimes stressful and frustrating, but above all, a tremendously rewarding career - bringing fresh, good quality produce to folks in different parts of the country became so much more than a job for me. Besides loving my work in produce, I am also a semi-decent photographer (I come from a long line of talented artists, much more talented than me for sure!), I also try to get better at cooking, and I think I might be actually succeeding at that too!