Sustainable agriculture
One of the main pillars of the Compagnie Fruitière’s CSR commitment is to practice and promote sustainable agriculture and to work to minimise at all levels the environmental impact of its practices.
The group is strongly committed to the development of organic agriculture on its farms, with a growing increase in certified areas and an ambitious development plan in this area for the future. The transition to organic farming requires many adaptations such as manual leaf removal or weeding, the use of organic composts that must be produced locally whenever possible using composting units that have been created specifically with the establishment of recycling channels for local by-products, such as cocoa dehulling waste, for example.
As part of its conventional agricultural plantations, Compagnie Fruitière has set up plans to improve its technical agricultural routes. The group is supported by specialized institutes such as CNRS, CIRAD, IRSTEA, or through participation in industrial research chairs such as ElsaPact in Montpellier with SupAgro, Agrosys. The search for cover crops to control pests and regenerate soils, the development of new biological control products, new water saving methods with sensors in the soil and weather forecasting per plot are all new processes implemented. The partnership signed with WWF in 2017 reinforces these efforts towards an increasingly sustainable and responsible agriculture.
Compagnie Fruitière also aims to minimise the carbon impact in its transport activities by optimising the filling of its vessels, improving the organisation of its turnarounds and permanently optimising the vessel fleet.
Finally, since Compagnie Fruitière has the largest network of ripening facilities in Europe, significant efforts are also being made to reduce the impact of this activity, by using the latest technologies such as the installation of solar panels, control sensors, air recycling, etc.