Private companies talk about the benefits of SIFAV

In the following video, four members of the Sustainability Initiative Fruit and Vegetables (SIFAV) share how the initiative has helped them to integrate sustainability agendas into their businesses.

According to Fair-Fruit International’s Wietse Vroom, “SIFAV provides its members with a common language and platform to share sustainability concerns”. Pascalle van Bergenhenegouwen discusses how the SIFAV platform has assisted Jaguar The Fresh Company to change its business practices: “We’ve been with SIFAV since the beginning”, says Pascalle, “and in the meantime, we’ve made a lot of changes in our sourcing and work closely with our producers on environmental and social aspects”.

The basket of standards also facilitates closer collaboration between buyers and producers, with the potential for a range of positive supply chain impacts. According to Anders Axelsson of ICA, “aligning requirements under the same group of standards makes it easier for us to actually get through to our suppliers and know that they are on board”.

Xavier Roussel, Dole Europe, believes that the SIFAV platform has supported improvements in practices across the Dole banana value chains: “In our project in banana farming, it’s an improvement in our practices across the board: the way we deal with our soil, water, reduced pesticide use, as well as social policies and health and safety”.