Urban Deli, a Swedish grocer-cum-bar-cum-restaurant has stopped selling all fruit and vegetables supplied by air freight. This is one of the measures this company is taking to improve sustainability. In their shops, all plastic bags have also been replaced by fabric and paper bags.
Urban Deli is an organic niche player in the food industry. Axfood owns 50% of the company. Åsa Domej, Sustainability Manager at Axfood, highlighted the Urban Deli initiative in her blog: "It looks like small-scale measures. They are, however, important symbolic gestures that emphasise important values. At the same time, they contribute to the greater sustainability in the production of food. It is a brave step that suits the times." She cannot say if Willys and Hemköp, two other prominent Axfood brands, are prepared to follow in Urban Deli's footsteps.
Maria Stenberg, Sustainability Manager at Urban Deli: "In general, fruit and vegetables are, of course, already very climate-friendly compared to animal products. Air transportation, however, makes them one of the worst culprits when it comes to the climate. This is why we have decided to ban those products."
Fragile, fresh, short-lived, foodstuffs are brought in by plane. These include berries and herbs. Urban Deli encourages its clients to eat fresh Swedish and European berries during the season or frozen ones out of season. Naturally ripened mangos, fresh figs, herbs and lettuce varieties are still sold, as long as they have not be delivered by plane.
Source: www.aktuellhallbarhet.se