Laura Himes has carved a distinctive path in the produce industry, leveraging her global experiences and passion for agriculture to make a significant impact. Growing up in Lawrence, Kansas, Himes’ early exposure to farming came through family visits to corn and soy farms in Iowa. However, it was her academic journey, which took her from Pomona College in California, where she studied anthropology, to Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, where she earned a master’s degree in international business, that set the stage for her entry into the produce industry.
Himes’ career began with Chiquita Brands, where she was drawn by a management development program that provided a comprehensive view of the company. This opportunity allowed her to immerse herself in the global aspects of the produce industry, with roles that took her from Belgium to Panama and Honduras. Her international career continued to develop as she managed Driscoll’s European operations in Portugal and later oversaw farm operations for Dole’s Sunny Ridge Farms in Florida and Mexico. These experiences equipped Himes with a broad perspective on the produce industry, spanning from farm operations to global supply chain management.
In 2013, Himes joined Walmart—the world’s largest retailer by sales—where she has spent the past 11 years in various leadership roles, including senior director for produce merchandising, before smoothly transitioning to her current role of vice president of sourcing – produce for Walmart, which operates over 4,600 in the U.S. and more than 5,400 stores internationally.
She is also an active leader in the broader produce community, having served as chair of the board in 2022-23 and a member of the executive committee for the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) for a three-year role that began in January 2021, at its inception.
In the following interview, Himes shares insights into her strategic approach to sourcing, advice she would offer suppliers looking to partner with Walmart, her thoughts on opportunities to improve collaboration between suppliers and retailers, and her vision for the future of global produce sourcing.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How did your previous role as merchandising director inform you in your current role?
I think both roles have a really strong focus on the customer. If you look at my current role in sourcing, we work within a framework around three things: resiliency, trust, and value. Resiliency is about giving the customer what they want, when they want it, however they choose to shop. Trust involves building that trust with the customer by sourcing items that are high quality, ethically sourced, and responsibly sourced. Value is about creating value throughout the whole supply chain and specifically giving value back to the customer. These principles are very similar to what we stand for in merchandising as well.
When I was in merchandising , I vividly remember how tough it felt when we couldn’t provide a product for a customer. Not only does it affect sales, but it also impacts the customer’s experience. They might miss out on a key ingredient for dinner, have to shop elsewhere, or deal with disappointing quality. It really hit home for me, and made me understand what’s important to the customer—price, quality, freshness, and responsibly sourced products. Understanding that from the merchant’s point of view has helped inform all of our choices in sourcing as well. I know that what I do specifically supports the merchant, who then supports the customer. So I think it’s all interlinked.
What would you say has surprised you the most in your current role?
I wouldn’t say anything has surprised me, but I’m definitely working differently now. I’ve been focusing more on long-term planning, balancing immediate issues with thinking about the future, whether that’s 5, 10, or even 20 years ahead.
Another change from my previous role is moving from a U.S.-centric focus to global sourcing. I’m now involved in supporting all our international markets, not just the U.S. It’s exciting to leverage our resources and insights to benefit Walmart’s global markets and learn from each other’s experiences—sharing best practices across borders.
One example I’m especially proud of is the team’s work in Central America. They built strong relationships with local banana growers and worked with them to find a way to sell individual bananas at an affordable price for customers. By tapping into a product stream that would have otherwise been redirected elsewhere—still maintaining great quality—they were able to provide these bananas to our customers at a price that made a real difference. It’s a perfect example of how we can leverage our scale to create meaningful impact.
Can you talk a bit about the balance between sourcing from local suppliers versus more global suppliers? How do you tread that line?
The customer is always at the center of everything we do. Our mission is to provide access to affordable, quality products so our customers can save money and live better. Whether we source locally or globally, our aim is always to offer high-quality, fresh products. That’s our North Star.
Primarily, we source as much as we can locally. Why do we do that? We know it will be the freshest product available, it reduces food miles, which is good for the environment, it supports local communities, and we know our customers want this. For our U.S. customers, two-thirds of what we source comes from the United States.
We also source from various countries to ensure redundancy in our supply chain. This approach helps us manage fluctuations due to climate and other factors and meet growing demand as Walmart continues to expand. Peru, for example, has seen significant growth over the past 10 years. We have a solid presence there with an office and sourcing experts, some of whom have been with us since we opened the office 10 years ago. Having a local presence in these countries is crucial, as building relationships with suppliers is vital for our import programs and overall supply chain resilience.
Have recent global events such as climate change and changes in trade policies affected your sourcing strategies?
Part of our framework is resiliency, and we have an intense focus on supply chain resiliency. What I mean by that is we’re always looking at diversifying regions to mitigate the impacts of climate change or trade policies. When it comes to trade policies, we need to have a diverse portfolio of countries that we source from. We’re constantly exploring and looking for new regions to supply from as potential opportunities.
We also have a specific team dedicated to supplier development. They help us, and all our sourcing teams within Walmart, find suppliers and help develop them. We have quite a few suppliers that may be smaller scale, but if they’re performing well, we want to help them scale up to support even more business.
Another key aspect is strategic relationships—we’re moving away from tactical approaches and focusing more on strategic ones. This involves building trust with our suppliers so they can grow with us in the long term.
Technology is also crucial. We’re starting to leverage technology in some partnerships and tests we’re conducting to help us determine where the next growing areas will be. We’re looking at climate forecasts for the next 20 to 25 years to understand where we need to go—and grow—next. Walmart is big, but we’re also a growth company. As Walmart continues to grow, it’s essential that we stay ahead of these changes to ensure we can meet the needs of our customers by diversifying and securing our supply chains from multiple locations.
What are the main differences between tactical and strategic approaches?
Traditionally, sourcing relationships have often been more tactical, with a primary focus on cost. There have certainly been times when that approach was necessary. However, when I consider strategic relationships, I think of long-term planning, open dialogue, and a deeper level of trust. It’s about having the confidence to ask questions like, “Where do you see your company in 20 years? Where do we see ourselves? How can we collaborate to reach those goals together? How can we be a better partner?” It’s a shift in mindset, but one that hinges on building and maintaining trust.
Can you speak about Walmart’s initiatives around sustainability as they relate to fresh produce sourcing?
What’s great about sustainability at Walmart is that it’s woven into everything we do, not just a separate focus. We really integrate it into our business and daily sourcing practices, focusing on four main areas: climate, nature, waste, and people.
When it comes to climate, Walmart has initiated what’s called Project Gigaton. This project, which started in 2017, aims to avoid 1 billion metric tons—or a gigaton—of greenhouse gases from the global supply chain. We’ve already reached our goal six years early, which is a testament to the hard work of our suppliers.
For nature, particularly in produce, we’re focused on pollinator protection to help secure our food supply. You may know that nearly two-thirds of our food supply chain depends on pollination for production, and we’re aware that the pollinator population is in decline. To address this, we’ve asked all our produce and floral suppliers to implement integrated pest management systems, certified by third-party certifiers, by the end of 2025. We’re working hard with our suppliers to meet that goal.
Waste reduction is another focus, particularly on reducing plastics and increasing recycled content in our private brand offerings. We’re also encouraging our suppliers to move in this direction.
Lastly, when it comes to people, our focus is on building communities and promoting responsible recruitment practices. Specifically in produce, we’ve asked all our suppliers to endorse the ethical charter, and most of them—about 98%—have already done so. Now, we’re concentrating on a new tool being developed to support continuous improvement in labor management systems. It’s not an audit, which is a relief given the audit fatigue out there, but rather a system to help suppliers improve their labor management practices. We’re encouraging our suppliers to engage with this tool as well.
These are the four pillars we’re really focused on. We also hear all the time from our suppliers about the innovative regenerative programs they’re working on, and we try to support them on their journey, amplifying their story. We truly appreciate the work they’re doing in their fields.
How do you balance environmental concerns with profitability?
It’s a good question. What we’re focused on is supporting the transition to more regenerative agricultural practices. What we don’t want are long-term premiums that will impact the cost of goods. The theory is that as growers move toward more regenerative agriculture, they’re going to need more support—both technical and financial—to make these changes.
What we’ve seen is that once farmers improve their soil health through regenerative practices, they should start seeing benefits, such as increased resiliency of their land to resist climate change, water issues, and so forth. They should also see increased yields and reduced costs over time. We understand this, and within Walmart, we have examples where we’re working with our growers to bridge that gap and help them get there. We have examples in rice, beef, soy, wheat, and corn, where we’re helping them shift to those regenerative practices.
I know the Walmart Foundation has been focused on helping in certain regenerative systems by providing tools, systems, and technology to help growers be more successful. I also know that there are quite a few USDA Climate-Smart funds available for the industry as well. So, there are ways to help bridge that gap. But we are focused on helping growers get over that initial hump because we think there will be long-term benefits from this transition.
What are the key criteria you look for when selecting new produce suppliers?
Obviously, one of the first things we would ask ourselves is, what value would the supplier bring to both Walmart and our customers? It could be a new assortment, sourcing from a new region, increased capacity in an area we’re looking for, better quality, or exceptional service. There are a lot of checkpoints we consider. But at the end of the day, everything is about the customer. Does this help them have better access to affordable, quality products at a great price? Cost is one factor, but it’s not the only one we look at. We also have very high standards around compliance, food safety, and insurance requirements. So there are a lot of things the supplier would need to meet in terms of requirements.
Another important question we ask is, what does this supplier bring to the table that’s different from what we have today? How would they differentiate themselves from others? We have an outstanding group of suppliers that we source from today, and work closely with them to support our mutual needs. However, we are a growth company and welcome new suppliers that support our values and mission.
What piece of advice would you offer to suppliers who would like to become partners with Walmart?
One of the things I would say specifically to suppliers is that some come in wanting to be everything to us. It’s really important to know your capabilities and be very transparent and honest about them with the buyer. Sometimes suppliers don’t want to say no or admit they can’t do something. But it’s crucial not to promise something you can’t deliver.
We have a saying internally: “Crawl, walk, run.” This means you should start small. Don’t try to take on all 4,500 Walmart U.S. stores at once—it’s probably not going to be very successful. Understand what your abilities are and grow at a responsible pace.
Another key point is to communicate openly and often with the buyers. Things happen, and we understand that. Bad news needs to travel fast, and it should come with solutions. Problem-solving and attention to the business are as important as performance. Performance is essential, but these other factors can really take you to the next level.
Know how you’re different, how you differentiate yourself from others, and be able to articulate it. Lastly, know who we are and know our customer. It’s important to understand how we operate, what our model is, and what’s important to the customer.
What emerging trends do you see in consumer preferences for fresh produce over the next five or 10 years?
One thing that’s not a surprise to anyone, but something we’re seeing more of in general, is the changing culture of our customer base, which continues to become more multicultural. This isn’t just in the U.S.; we see this in other markets as well. We need to make sure that we’re meeting their needs and maintaining an assortment of produce that reflects their cultural preferences.
Another trend is that consumers are becoming more interested in transparency within the supply chain. People’s desire for a healthier lifestyle will continue to grow, and part of that is knowing where their food comes from, how it’s grown, and by whom. Social media is driving this trend, and I think we need to be at the forefront of it.
I think we’ll continue to see these trends—multiculturalism, increased transparency—and, of course, technology will play a role in everything we do. We’ll be using technology more to educate our customers, whether it’s about the ripeness of a product on the shelf or to provide more information about our products.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities to improve collaboration between the supply and retail sides of the supply chain?
I’ll speak from my time and experience within the produce industry and what I’ve seen from both sides of the coin. First, I think we need to focus more on what we have in common. We do share quite a few things, and I think number one is that both sides are very purpose-driven and customer-focused. Producers want to grow healthy products, and retailers like Walmart want to sell them to consumers, so they can have a great eating experience and live healthier lives. So, we all have a common purpose to start with, and we all want to be around for many years to come.
It needs to be a profitable business for both of us, and we need to collaborate on how retailers can support growers’ efforts to become more sustainable in the long term. The area where we could work together the most is in keeping the product affordable and fresh for the customer while maintaining a profitable business model for the grower.
This goes beyond just negotiating the price. We need to have enough trust and confidence in our relationships to have open dialogues about what we can do to become more efficient, drive waste out of the supply chain, help increase yields, lower costs for our common customer, and overall become better partners. We’ve had some of these conversations with suppliers, and it’s amazing what innovative, long-term thinking can come out of these open discussions.
It really takes a lot of trust and information sharing to reach a common goal, but I think we can get there. Trust is the foundation of it all.
In what ways do you think the grocery procurement sector will change over the next decade or so?
As we continue to face climate change, in addition to labor, pest and water pressures, I think that procurement practices will become more diversified, both regionally and globally, with new countries of origin emerging that we hadn’t previously considered. Regeneration will also be embedded in all our practices, and we’ll likely see more innovative solutions using technology to drive down costs. Additionally, technology will play a crucial role, not only in crop forecasting and harvesting, but also in genetics, potentially enhancing flavor, yield, safety, and nutrition.
One thing I hope to see is an increase in diverse talent within the industry, and I mean diversity in the broadest sense of the word. We’re starting to see it now, but I hope it continues to grow. We need to attract the best and the brightest to our industry. We need talent not just from the agriculture industry, which is important, but also from other areas like technology, supply chain, finance, engineering, genetics, and so forth. We have a lot of big issues to solve, and we need all the great minds we can get.