Fruit and vegetables are an essential part of a healthy diet and are very popular with our customers. To enable us to supply fruit and vegetables from the most sustainable sources possible, we work closely with various organizations.
When it comes to minimizing environmental impact and improving the living conditions of workers, there are a number of key points:
Around 50 percent of our fruit and vegetables come from Switzerland. For imports, we insist wherever possible on fairly traded fruit and vegetables – working closely with Max Havelaar, Switzerland's leading fairtrade organization. We also require our business partners to adhere to minimum social standards for products that are not fairtrade-certified. These are mostly standards such as GRASP (GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice) or amfori BSCI Primary Production.
The sustainable use of natural resources such as water and soil is a key environmental consideration when growing fruit and vegetables. First and foremost, we promote organic cultivation, which does not use synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides. For our conventionally grown products, we try to reduce the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers.
We have adopted the Pesticides Guideline, which requires the responsible use of pesticides, and we actively support our suppliers with the implementation of improvement measures. In this vein, we have begun a number of projects to promote the use of compost and organic pest control. This is conducive to biodiversity and exposes flora and fauna to fewer pesticides.
One important standard for the responsible use of resources is GLOBALG.A.P. which, as well as food safety aspects, also promotes good agricultural practice. We require all our producers to have GLOBALG.A.P. or SwissG.A.P. certification.
One of the key issues affecting the cultivation of fruit and vegetables is water. To ensure the sustainable use of water among our producers, we have devised our own water standard in partnership with the WWF and GLOBALG.A.P. We implement this standard with producers in countries and regions with critical water situations.
We work with independent auditors, who review the implementation of our water standard at the farms. For all standards, the independence of the auditors is essential in order for us to recognize them.
In order to reduce food waste, we have been selling oversized, unusually small and misshapen specimens of various types of fruit and vegetables under the Ünique brand since 2013. Around 3 to 10 percent of the fruit and vegetable harvest cannot be sold, or is difficult to sell in the conventional way, because it is misshapen, the wrong size or weather-damaged. Ünique benefits our suppliers and our customers, to whom we are able to offer seasonal products at attractive prices.
Thanks to Bio Suisse's bud guidelines, we are able to guarantee full traceability of our organic Naturaplan products right back to the field. The Naturaplan ID shows you the farm from which our organic fruit and vegetables originate. Our conventional range of fruit and vegetables comes from certified cultivation in accordance with SwissGAP or GLOBALG.A.P. Consequently, we are also able to trace these products directly to the individual producer.
Available in our supermarkets, the Multi Bag is a true innovation. This reusable bag for fruit and vegetables is made from FSC-certified cellulose, bears the Oecoplan label and is recommended by the WWF. It is made from the cellulose fibre modal, which is manufactured from FSC-certified beech wood chips. The Multi Bags can be used again and again, making them an environmentally-friendly alternative to disposable plastic bags.