How partnerships and innovation redefine supply chain resilience: A SupplySide Global recap

One of the educational sessions featured at SupplySide Global 2025 provided an expert discussion on navigating global supply chain uncertainty, the impacts of trade policy, and regulatory burdens on the supply chain. The conversation highlighted that supply chain resilience is less about logistics alone and more about strategic partnerships, innovation, and long-term planning.

This hour-long session, “Tariffs and Turbulence: Overcoming food and beverage supply chain challenges,” included speakers Matt Landi, vice president of industry relations of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), Uche Jumbo, founder and CEO of Choputa, and Rend Al-Mondhiry, partner at Amin Wasserman Gurnani LLP. The discussion was moderated by Scott Miller, senior staff writer for SupplySide Food & Beverage Journal. The presentation also placed a focus on how the organic sector was affected in particular.

Three main objectives of the conversation

The three main objectives for the presentation, Miller explained, were:

• To create robust strategies to withstand geopolitical disruptions, such as tariff changes and trade uncertainties.
• To understand how trade policies, regulations and international relations influence procurement decisions.
• And to develop rapid response protocols for ingredient shortages, quality issues and regulatory challenges.

Impact on the organic sector in the US

Matt Landi provided an overview of how tariffs, driven by trade conflicts, create significant problems for the organic market, and how the OTA is supporting legislation and policies, such as the Domestic Market Expansion Act that support organic trade and support farmers in strengthening domestic supply infrastructure. Support of responsible international trade is also important, he added. He notes that the three- year transition period, unique to organic farming, along with the size of existing infrastructure being too large to be used for organic, place burdens on the organic marketplace, in addition to the pressure tariffs add on as well.

Innovation and reimagination

Jumbo highlighted her experience as an entrepreneur navigating supply chain challenges, providing an example of having to find a new supplier after her previous one decided it could not continue. Turbulence exists with innovation, she stated, and the key is trusting the process and forming strong partnerships that can provide networking. “I would say it's a little less of logistics and more of reimagination,” she explained. “You just have to reimagine what that supply chain looks like.”

Regulatory Burdens and Supplier Onboarding

Al-Mondhiry explains that is a misconception that switching suppliers can be done quickly, and that this myth overlooks risks and burden of onboarding, especially when considering regulatory compliance. This also applies to ingredients as well, she added, especially when moving to natural and non-synthetic ingredients. She also emphasizes that companies must perform extensive homework, including auditing for FSVP (Foreign Supplier Verification Program) obligations—a top FDA citation—and checking for FDA import alerts to avoid delays or product detention.

Key takeaways from panelists

Each of the presenters stated one takeaway about turbulence in the marketplace for the audience to keep in mind. Jumbo highlighted a less commonly remembered aspect of the situation: “the one thing to remember is, most times when we say supply chain, the first thought is trucks, logistics, the ocean, but behind all of those are people, and we should focus on building that relationship with the people,” she explained.

Landi concurred, adding that partnerships that allow all parties to thrive regardless of the external circumstances are an important focus. “There's always going to be external circumstances, whether they're tariffs, pandemics, hurricanes, whatever the heck it is, we're going to have to learn to deal with it,” he explained. “Resilient supply chains are built on relationships and people.”

Al-Mondhiry commented on the importance of labels. “By that I mean not over promising what your product does, how sustainable it is, and then under delivering, because that can have legal consequences, potentially regulatory consequences, and you can lose consumer trust that way.”

This article was created with assistance from Gemini. The content has been reviewed and edited by Erin McEvoy, Associate Editor. For more information on the extent and nature of AI usage, please contact us.