Q&A: IFPA’s 2024 Impact Report
January 23, 2025 2024 was a successful whirlwind of a year for International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), a nonprofit organization that serves the entire fresh produce and floral supply chain. Aiming to drive change across the produce and floral industry on a global scale, IFPA releases an annual Impact Report that highlights its 10 most significant accomplishments every year.
CEAg World recently spoke with Doug Bohr, chief strategy and program officer for IFPA, about the organization’s achievements and how they’ll shape plans for 2025.
CEAg World: In your own words, can you tell me a bit more about the Annual Impact Report?
Doug Bohr: When we issued our first Impact Report, we intended to be accountable to our members by reflecting on what we’ve accomplished on their behalf. The report felt like the most concise, straightforward way to roll up a number of the activities and initiatives that we had taken on over the course of the year and share where we thought we had the greatest impact.
We take it very seriously, our mandate to do work on behalf of our members. But also, we want to be accountable for following through and achieving some level of impact on each of those things that we’ve embarked on.
CEAg World: What, in your opinion, was IFPA’s biggest accomplishment in 2024?
Doug Bohr: That’s a difficult question. As a member association that serves so many members, we never pick a favorite. I think the impact is weighted depending on where you sit in the supply chain and how it has a direct and immediate impact on you.
But if I was pressed to choose one, I would say one that just about everyone, no matter where they sit across that supply chain, would agree on the impact of increasing access to and consumption of our industry’s fresh fruits, vegetables, and floral products.
With that that broader impact in mind, one of the biggest accomplishments is achieving full funding for the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program. [Note: IFPA launched its largest ad campaign to defend WIC in 2024 in response to threats to defund the program. This resulted in a $1 billion increase for the fiscal year.] This campaign and its success were certainly a significant first step toward building our advocacy muscle. Policies like WIC impact the lives of everyday citizens as well as our industry, right? So, for all those reasons, I think it’s hard to argue that WIC isn’t one of our most important accomplishments of the year.
CEAg World: How do you see your efforts from this past year impacting 2025 and beyond?
Doug Bohr: One of the impacts that we have included in this year’s Impact Report was the creation of our new strategic plan. From where I sit, that plan was already put into action. It calls for a new level of ambition and it certainly calls for a new level of global activity. Our world is becoming increasingly global, and we have different markets interacting with each other. What happens in the United States ripples across the globe and vice versa.
We’ve been learning a lot, and our strategic plan now focuses on three key pillars: worldwide influence, personalized member experience, and future-proofing our industry.
That third pillar especially is looking at how to bring innovation, science, technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and new food safety practices into our industry. We’re also thinking about the opportunities that attract the best and brightest talent to our industry to shape the next generation. So I’m very excited about our strategic plan and how it will set us up for success in the future.
To access the full 2024 Impact Report from IFPA, click here.