Environmentally-conscious entrepreneurship and sustainability are top priorities at Fruitsnacks, which is why we do everything possible to reduce our ecological footprint and take care of our environment. When it comes to our sector, we are a pioneer in this field. Environmental sustainability is a concept applied from the cultivation of the fruit to the delivery of your fruit basket. So, how do we do it?
Our fruit company's ecological footprint
Let's start from the beginning with Fruitsnacks, the company that puts all its heart and dedication into growing your apples and pears.
Environmentally friendly cultivation:
- Pesticide use is limited wherever possible. If, after a visual check, pesticide still appears to be necessary, then it's applied selectively, so that beneficial insects are preserved against its harmful effects.
- Instead, the preferred method is to use beneficial insects to hunt insects harmful to the orchard. To attract these beneficial insects and keep them crawling and buzzing across our plantation, we plant hedges, flower meadows and natural buffer strips.
- There are also perches and nesting boxes for kestrels and buzzards scattered across the orchard, which protects the trees and their fruit from harmful insects and mice.
- Furthermore, the mating disruption technique is put to good use. This is a natural means of combating apple leaf miners and codling moths. Apple leaf miners and codling moths are monitored using pheromone traps.
Renewable energy:
- Rainwater is collected and reused.
- We also power our fruit refrigerators and sorting machines using energy derived from solar panels; this energy goes on to be used a second time.
- The heat released by refrigerating the fruit is converted via a heat exchanger to the hot water supply and underfloor heating in the seasonal workers’ accommodations.
And on to our fruit baskets...
Our fruit baskets:
- A fruit basket is included on your first fruit delivery and stays at your company. That helps save on return journeys.
- Fruit delivered afterwards will then be supplied in a cardboard box made from 100% recycled paper.
- To prevent damage, we protect the fruit with ‘bedding’ (packing sheets). A purple/blue paper is always used to cover the delivered fruit. Place this in the bottom of the fruit basket with each order and your basket is sure to stay clean.
Our deliveries:
- In addition to our home location in Nieuwerkerken, Fruitsnacks already has four warehouses (Aalter, Dilbeek, Lochristi and Haasdonk) receiving fruit deliveries by lorry. This helps consolidate the work. Fruit is packed and delivered from these hubs to customers in the region, which means there’s no unnecessary distance travelled to and from Hesbaye.
- Orders are bundled on Mondays and Wednesdays so that your fruit carpools with the fruit going to neighbouring companies. Our aim is to cut down on your and our transport costs.
Sustainable collaborations:
- Our organic fruit baskets are put together by De Wroeter, an organic farm and welfare work centre, in Kortessem. Our working partnership with De Wroeter is fully in line with our buy-local vision and commitment to corporate social responsibility.
- The fruit undergoes strict quality controls during packaging, and the result is that a lot of fruit isn't ‘good enough’. Most of this fruit, which is still perfect for consumption, is donated to the local food bank, Sint-Vincentius. The rest is ‘rescued’, so to speak, from the plantations. There’s no doubt whatsoever that the wild animals in our orchard appreciate this.
Our invoicing:
- We always prefer to send our invoices electronically.
Voka Sustainable Business Charter
With the Voka Sustainable Entrepreneurship Charter, we commit ourselves at Fruitsnacks to carry out at least 10 actions in one year that are included in the sustainable development goals. We are therefore committed to translating as many of the 17-UN objectives as possible into concrete actions.
This way we always go one step further to produce your fruit basket as sustainably as possible.
