On April 27th and 28th, the 4th Symposium on Agricultural Social Responsibility, organized by the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture (AMHPAC) was held in the city of San Luis Potosi, with the objective of updating, training, sharing experiences, needs, and creating ties between companies in the agricultural industry from different regions of Mexico that seek to remain at the forefront in social responsibility.

This event was attended by more than 100 representatives of the agricultural industry from different states of Mexico, as well as authorities from several organizations such as the Confederation of Agricultural Associations of the State of Sinaloa (CAADES), AHIFORES, ANEBERRIES, the Food Bank (BAMX), to mention a few, and, Veggies From Mexico also attended this enriching event.

Edgar Ramirez, Internal Audit Coordinator of Veggies From Mexico, participated in the first day of the symposium with a workshop entitled “Audits in social responsibility and its legal compliance”, where the attendees were instructed to learn about the regulations on which the team of auditors of our association is based to perform the audit exercises, as well as the main risks that are evaluated and their context in the national and international legal framework.

Other participants included Ms. María Dolores Aguirre with the topic “Labor inspection mechanisms in the United States and their compliance”, Ms. Nancy Hernández, on behalf of the International Labor Organization (ILO), with her talk on “Guide for the Prevention and Identification of forced labor”, as well as Mr. Gustavo Robles of AMHPAC with the conference about the “Guide for the prevention and identification of forced labor”. He presented two lectures, the first on “Legal updates for the 2022 – 2023 agricultural season”, where all the legal changes that came into effect during the agricultural cycle were presented, and the second was the workshop entitled “Legal aspects of agricultural worker contracting”.

The three workshops were held simultaneously, the third one being the participation of Ms. Luz María Chombo with the topic “Due recruitment of migrant workers”.

Finally, on the second day, the master lectures “Sustainability, an improvement tool for Companies”, given by the National Manager of supply and agricultural safety of Grupo HERDEZ, Mr. José Antonio Rico, and “Changing the leadership scheme”, by Dr. Angel De Luna De la Vega, Founder and Director of La comarca de los talentos civil society (S.C.), were presented.

About AMHPAC: The Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture AC is an organization that represents more than 300 companies located in 23 states out of 31 in the country, involved in the production, packaging, distribution, and marketing of fresh vegetables produced under protected schemes in Mexico. It is worth mentioning that its member groups are more than 10,000 hectares and generate more than 100,000 jobs, 38% of which are permanent, and the remaining 62% are temporary.