Sustainability has always been an important topic at Yex. We believe that everyone deserves good welfare standards. That is why we established the Best Fresh Foundation in 2010 with our colleagues at affiliated companies. With this foundation, Best Fresh supports and initiates projects that can really make a difference to people who need it. In addition to the foundation, we try to take a holistic approach to sustainability, and not just look at our own impact. As a key player in the whole supply chain, we feel responsible to look at every aspect and be more sustainable where possible. We adapt a “Farm to Fork” strategy and divided the supply chain into 5 aspects: farm (grower), packaging, transport, logistics, and fork (consumer).

One of the most important tasks of our core business is to make sure that we trade products that are safe for consumption. Which is why all our growers are Global G.A.P. certified. Secondly, we believe that everyone should have a good and safe working environment. We want all our growers to be socially certified and guarantee the well-being of their employees. For this reason, we joined the SIFAV covenant, not only because we are serious about this subject, but to work towards this goal together.

Packaging waste and overpackaging is still a big problem in 2020. It is our job to improve on all our own packaging and make it more circular in the future. We abide by the golden rule of reduce, reuse, recycle. In 2020 we have got rid of all our black plastic packaging, because this cannot be recycled properly. This has saved at least 70.000 kg of waste! Furthermore, we tackled our beloved pomelo and its packaging. We managed to reduce almost 50% of the packaging weight by redesigning it. These are just a few examples of Yex’s sustainable packaging initiatives.

We want a healthy planet and carbon emission is a significant factor. Which is why we must look critically at our freight transport. This will be a big topic for us in the coming years. Regarding the transport within Europe, our trucks are all equipped Euro 6 motors, and our drivers make sure that they drive as efficiently as possible by using an app and completing relevant training.

Our facilities in ABC Westland, The Netherlands, are all aimed towards efficiency. We have 16.000 solar panels, which reduces our annual CO2 emissions by 2.000.000 kg! We also built a new section to our warehouse ABC Logistics this year, which is even more efficient in its energy usage. Apart from our warehouse, our offices have smart environmental control units and are supplied by a geothermal heat source, we use leftover energy from our efficient cooling from our warehouse to heat up our offices. All in all, something we are proud of.

To reduce food waste, we already started several initiatives; our class 2 sweet potatoes for example are processed into fries, we made an alcoholic drink from passion fruit and ginger and we donate products to the Fruit and Vegetable brigade for food banks on a weekly basis. We are also doing tests to see whether fruit and vegetables, unfit for human consumption, can be used for breeding black soldier flies. These in turn can be used to feed livestock. We do everything in our power to reduce food waste and make it more circular. In order to formalise our commitment to halve our food waste by 2030, we became stakeholder of “ de Stichting Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling”, a foundation against food waste.

Consumers play a big part in achieving a healthy planet. With our brand Discovered, we encourage consumers to try surprising and delicious fruits and vegetables and adapt to a more plant-based diet. We show them that it’s possible to prepare delicious meals without meat. We are also working to make all our packaging more sustainable and educate consumers on how to dispose of the packaging accordingly.