At the end of 2017 all bananas in the Migros will be sustainably cultivated. Therefore Migros has adjusted its standards for the conventional range of bananas. The new “Generation M promise” includes all Migros bananas, regardless of their price.
Photo: Migros
Bananas, perfectly packed in their peel, healthy and nutritious, are the most popular fruit amongst Migros customers. The current banana cultivation, while not organic or fair-trade at the moment, is connected with several social and sustainable challenges. That is why Migros has committed to the “Rainforest Alliance“ standards. But now the company is taking it a step further. For the pioneering project of the WWF 300, additional measures were developed to reach a socially and ecologically responsible standard in cultivation. This pilot project is implemented on the banana farms in Columbia and Ecuador. Thanks to these steps the entire range of bananas Migros has on offer will meet these sustainable criteria from the end of 2017. The new “Generation M promise" includes all Migros bananas, regardless of their price.
Photo: Migros
The adjustments will be implemented while the farms are producing, and the changes will be checked by independent auditors. The wide range of changes cover the following seven areas:
• Ecosystems and biodiversity: the protection of the biodiversity of plants and animals as well as the protection of entire ecosystems by transforming buffer zones at plantations into forest areas and rivers.
• Waste management: improves waste handling, storing and transport.
• Pest management: a responsible and reduced use of chemicals when possible.
• Soil management: soil analysis with the following adjustments and improvements of the quality, the amount of organic matter and soil structure.
• Climate change: analysis of greenhouse gasses and actions to reduce the amount of produced greenhouse gas.
• Water management: responsible use of water and sewage management, and the facilitation of a discussion with other water users on a regional level.
• Social themes: optimization of working conditions, job security and health and safety for the workers on plantations.
And finaly, Migros guarantees transparent traceability of their bananas. All the bananas grown on plantations that have implemented the changes of the WWF project are labeled with a coded sticker that identifies the plantation on which the bananas are grown.
The transport of the bananas in reusable plastic packaging is environ-mentally friendly. This saves not only the waste of more than a million bags every year, the use of plastic crates also decreased the emission of CO2. The decrease is considerable; it is comparable with 400 return flights from Europe to New Zealand.
Migros continues to offer its customers more for their money, as they always do, because the “Generation M promise” of the WWF project will be at the same price.
Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund
Tristan Cerf
Phone: 0041 (0) 44 277 24 98
E-Mail: tristan.cerf@mgb.ch