The Greenery had a real world first at the Fruit Logistica. A carton packaging made from fibres from tomato stalks was presented for the first time. Duijvestijn tomatoes are packaged in the bio based box. Not unrelated, this Greenery grower was chosen as the winner of the Tomato Inspiration Award 2015 at the fair.
According to senior product manager Aad van Dijk of The Greenery it is an innovation which came to turn a discarded plant into a high value product. The stalks are used to produce the boxes and the leaves for smaller packaging. There is also a plan to extract raw materials from the plant juices for bio-plastics. The box is a development by the chain consortium Biobased Westland and is produced by Smurfit-Kappa. The development with bio based packaging will cause a revolution in the packaging industry. This box is the version 1.0, in the end we hope to increase it to a full product range, but we would like to do that with our customers."
Aad says there is interest from the retail to start working with bio based packaging. "We will supply the first packagings next season. The technical properties of this packaging are no less than those of a conventional box. Because tomato fibres have been used, the box can be recycled multiple times. Even more than a standard carton box which increases the sustainability factor even more. The Greenery supports retailers who highly value sustainability with this innovative bio based packaging. Customers take this bio based packaging into the marketing mix."
For more information:
Aad van Dijk
The Greenery
T: 0031 (0) 180-657149
a.vandijk2@thegreenery.com
www.thegreenery.com