IFPA's First Retail Council Meeting Reimagines Supply-Buy Partnerships; Joe Watson Discusses
WASHINGTON, DC - 24 retail banners gathered alongside suppliers during the first Retail Council meeting under the International Fresh Produce Association’s new volunteer structure. Sitting down to confront long-standing obstacles to collaboration and reimagine partnership, a handful of association insiders gave a glimpse into the key takeaways.

“You can’t build a collaborative relationship if you don’t understand the realities of your partner’s business,” said Joe Watson, IFPA Vice President of Retail, Foodservice, and Wholesale. “We heard again and again that trust starts with shared understanding and open, honest conversation.”
Honing in on trust being hard to build and easy to break, Joe said that, first and foremost, retailers and suppliers have a shared goal of delivering value to consumers. Despite this, however, each is sometimes at odds with the other on the best way to accomplish that.
“The heart of our discussion came down to one thing: transparency. Surprisingly, feelings were mixed on this,” he shared. “Some believe the biggest challenge is a lack of transparency—either due to poor-quality information, miscommunication, or inconsistent data sharing practices. In other cases, there were reports of too much transparency, where oversharing creates confusion or undermines confidence.”
Striking a fine balance, acknowledging that conversations are critical even when the need for those check-ins is not mutual, rang as a new goal for all sides involved. With both sides often working toward different definitions of success, conflicting KPIs, short-term priorities, and a lack of joint business planning were cited as points that could turn strategic partnerships into transactional exchanges.

“What if the industry could build partnerships from scratch, with no baggage and no bad habits? That’s exactly the challenge participants took on. The blueprint they created wasn’t radical, but it did demand a cultural shift,” Joe observed.
At its core, the ideal partnership model includes:
- Mutual transparency: From costs to crop conditions, trust requires full visibility on both sides
- Strategic alignment: A shared vision and a 3-to-5-year planning horizon creates room for innovation and agility
- Long-term commitment: True collaboration isn’t seasonal—it’s sustained
- Open dialogue: Regular, consistent conversations, preferably in person, are vital to navigating challenges
- Collaborative tools and structures: Joint business planning, aligned KPIs, and vendor tools make strategic alignment possible
- Flexibility and adaptability: Retailers and suppliers must be willing to adjust specs, sell the full crop, and problem-solve together
- Education and empathy: Understanding each other’s world—whether it’s farm realities or retail logistics—is key to building solutions that work
Personal connection was repeatedly cited as a differentiator; picking up the phone, walking fields together, and making human interactions happen to build trust.
“Technology is helpful, but it can’t replace personal relationships,” one participant noted. “Those are what carry you through the hard moments.”
High staff turnover, while technological tools meant to connect increasingly replace in-person interactions, was cited in retrospect on both sides, but the IFPA saw optimism on the horizon.

“The tools to move forward already exist. What’s needed is intention—and the patience to stay the course,” Joe stated. “This meeting didn’t solve all the challenges between retailers and suppliers—but it didn’t aim to. What it did accomplish was more important: a shared acknowledgment that while the barriers to trust are real, they are not insurmountable.”
Attendees pointed to several building blocks for stronger collaboration:
- Patience and consistency
- Cost-sharing and risk-sharing models
- Open-book conversations on costs, challenges, and trade-offs
- Better use of data to drive smarter planning and execution
- Educational partnerships
- Knowledge transfer playbooks standardizing how teams onboard, share best practices, and navigate transitions
Ultimately, the group called for guidelines that define what success looks like on each side and provide clear pathways for joint action.
“In a sector where everyone depends on everyone else, that kind of collaboration isn’t just good business—it’s the future,” Joe concluded.
As we continue to report the pathway for both sides holding up the bridge between the product and the consumer, keep reading AndNowUKnow.