Cultivation business Van Oers United produces and delivers fresh vegetables, mainly to retailers, throughout the year. Platform ‘Grensverleggers’ sat down with sustainability manager Maria Oliveira to talk about trends in the vegetable sector and onions from Senegal.
“We notice that retailers demand various sustainability requirements from Van Oers,” says Oliveira. “These include demands for social compliance to which our vegetables must comply. For example, have they been produced under proper labour conditions? These are all positive developments; the problem is, however, that different countries and different retailers demand different requirements.”
Customization
“For example, in England they use the system SMETA to audit the social standards, while in the most European countries they use BSCI. Recently, an important retailer from Germany demanded the GRASP module as a social standard. We have to integrate all of these demands in our company policy and that usually means custom made regulations.”
“This cannot continue in the future; this is realized by many parties. Using platforms such as the Dutch MVO and IDH, many stakeholders regularly sit together to discuss harmonization.”
Onions
Satisfying the social demands is not a problem for Van Oers. For example, the project in Senegal, where Van Oers produces sweet corn, peas, and spring onions. Oliveira: “These vegetables are only produced for the European market during the winter season because of the climate. To preserve the soil fertility and health, we were looking for an extra vegetable to add to the crop rotation. Eventually, we chose onions.”
There is a large local market for onions, but cultivation is not possible in the monsoon (from June to October), so many onions are imported. Oliveira: “We have been cultivating a variety that is more resistant to fungal infection locally. It can be grown in rainy weather. These onions will be cooled and stored in special storage units after harvesting. This way, the locally grown onions are available in Senegal during a part of the season.”
“We are discussing the involvement in this project of other local producers with governments and local partners. For example, we have thought of a program with courses and knowledge exchange, which is quite popular with the local producers.”
Onion project offers employment
The most important part of this onion project are the people that work on the farm in Senegal. About 3,000 people. Oliveira: “Local production of onions for the local market is good for the employment. In addition to the current crops, we can produce this extra crop that offers more work for our employees for a longer period.”
Source: Grensverleggers, MVO Nederland