The Ethical Charter Implementation Program (ECIP), overseen by a multistakeholder industry group to build alignment with the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices and facilitated by Equitable Food Initiative, celebrated the close of its second year with continued growth in supplier and grower engagement, expanded buyer participation, and two flagship events held in conjunction with the IFPA Global Produce & Floral Show.
The events were held to increase industry participation in the program and to celebrate the suppliers and growers who are demonstrating leadership in the program.
In the first event, Walmart invited some of its suppliers to an educational meeting to learn more about ECIP and how the program aligns with the retailer's values and priorities for its supply chain. Laura Himes, vice president of global sourcing for Walmart, moderated a panel discussion with representatives from Five Crowns Marketing, Naturipe Farms and Stemilt Growers, who shared practical experiences about how they use ECIP to deepen engagement with their growers. Each company offered candid advice for leveraging ECIP to meet social responsibility goals.
"At Walmart, we believe that strengthening responsible labor practices across the supply chain is essential," said Laura Himes. "ECIP provides growers and suppliers with the tools and resources they need to assess their management systems, benchmark their progress, and drive continuous improvement. We were proud to bring together some of our suppliers to hear how they are using the program and to share how ECIP fits into our ethical sourcing priorities."
Also during the IFPA Global Show, ECIP and its sponsors, Windset Farms, GoodFarms and Stemilt Growers, hosted the 2026 Leadership Circle Celebration, recognizing the 34 supplier companies that have earned all five stars in the online ECIP Learn, Assess, Benchmark platform since the new engagement criteria were introduced in July.
© Equitable Food Initiative
Matt Modena (Windset Farms), Ryan Cherry (Windset Farms), Ariadna Monroy (Walmart), Roland Harmon (Walmart), Laura Himes (Walmart).
During the celebration, representatives from Costco, Kroger, Sam's Club and Walmart spoke about the program and celebrated the work of the companies in the ECIP Leadership Circle. Companies that have already earned a spot in the 2026 ECIP Leadership Circle event include:
- AMFRESH North America
- Bay Baby Produce
- Bee Sweet
- Blue River Legacy Farms
- Bobalu Berry Farms
- Bonipak
- Bostock North America
- Bridges Organic Produce
- Del Monte Fresh Produce
- Dole South Africa
- Eagle Eye Produce
- Equifruit
- Favorita USA Corp
- Five Crowns
- Fresh Express
- Fresh Flavor International
- Freshway Produce
- The Fruitist
- Fyffes
- GLC Cerritos
- Gold Cup Fresh
- GoodFarms
- Homegrown Organic Farms
- Kingsburg Orchards
- Mastronardi
- Miami Agro Import
- Misionero
- Naturipe
- Oppy
- Pacific Produce
- Stemilt Growers
- Sunridge Farms
- Superfresh Growers
- Titan Farms
- Westmoreland Sales - Topline Farms
- William H. Kopke Jr. Inc.
- Windset Farms
"Momentum is building around ECIP, and we are encouraged by the engagement and commitment we're seeing from retailers, suppliers and growers," said Kenton Harmer, director of market-based impact for Equitable Food Initiative. "With the changes in ECIP LAB this year — Engagement 2.0 and introduction of the Supplier Gold Star — we have raised the bar for what meaningful engagement looks like, and this year's Leadership Circle demonstrates that suppliers are rising to the occasion. Since the first Leadership Circle was announced in 2024, the number of participating supplier companies has grown steadily, even as qualification thresholds have increased."
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