Vegetables
Vegetable crops currently being tested are spinach and peas, used in Unilever's
frozen vegetable products, mainly under the brand names of Birds Eye, Findus
and Iglo. European contract growers provide around 80,000 tonnes of spinach
(28 % of global) a year to our companies. We also produce over 100,000 tonnes
of frozen peas per year, approximately 13% of global production of industrially
processed peas.
The Ice Cream & Frozen Foods U.K. Company Birds Eye Wall's was the first
to embark on a sustainable agriculture programme for peas in 1997. Measures
have been taken across the range of sustainability issues, with positive results
e.g. on local birdlife. Through a Farmer's Forum, the sustainability approach
is now being spread from the 20 growers in the programme to all 480 growers.
The spinach programme in Germany started in 1999 with Langnese Iglo. Emphasis
here has been on nutrient control and IPM, resulting in e.g. field margins being
sown in with a mixture of herbs and wild flowers, to prevent leaching and run-off
but also to provide habitat for predator insects.
The Italian programme with Sagit, Cisterna, also started with spinach, in 2000.
Emphasis is on sensitising farmers to the issues and reducing chemicals consumption
through e.g. the use of feromones in pest control.
A first set of Good Agricultural Practice guidelines for vegetables was published
in 2002 (please check Results,
SA Guidelines).