The International Fresh Produce Association Australia-New Zealand (IFPA A-NZ) has assembled the exemplars of Australasia's produce industry to advance the supply chain's conversation on sustainability at two key Sustainability Summits in Australia and New Zealand next week.
Delegates from the fresh produce supply chain including representatives from vertically integrated businesses will attend the Sustainability Summits held in Melbourne on August 13 and Auckland on August 15. IFPA A-NZ is proud to co-produce the New Zealand Sustainability Summit with United Fresh New Zealand Inc.
Top-tier topics in global sustainability including food waste, packaging, regenerative agriculture, trends and innovations, corporate and industry case studies and developing frameworks to mitigate the risks of climate change amid increasing pressure from legislators, customers and consumers will be addressed.
Key-note speaker US-based IFPA vice president of sustainability Tamara Muruetagoiena will present a global sustainability overview including her insights into the factors driving corporate sustainability agendas. "Regulators around the world are responding to consumer demands to remove or reduce single use plastics in fresh produce. In Australia, regulators are coming for PLU stickers. It's our industry's responsibility to provide better, more sustainable packaging options that balance food safety, food quality and waste," she said.
Leading lights share sustainability progress
Zespri International executive officer for sustainability, Rachel Depree, who is also chair of the IFPA Global Sustainability Council urged industry stakeholders starting their sustainability journeys to focus on only the two to three topics that matter to their customers or consumers and find out which of the increasingly stringent regulations and requirements apply to them most directly. "Our priorities centre around providing great-tasting, high-quality kiwifruit that deliver on health and wellbeing, while ensuring our packaging meets environmental standards. We're also focusing on understanding how climate change could impact our supply - all part of future-proofing our industry," she said.
N.A.V.I Co Global CEO, "The Packaging Hippie" Gilad Sadan who will present on packaging trends and innovations said his paper bag solutions including those developed for mandarins, bananas, grapes and potatoes, focused on being fully recyclable to support easy recycling at home.
Igniting the tough conversation
IFPA managing director A-NZ Ben Hoodless said the Summits would be the second hosted in Australasia, and are among a series of targeted workshops and events on sustainability held since 2020, in response to growing demand from the industry.
"They will bring together the entire supply chain to hear about a broad range of sustainability journeys from different perspectives. Across the industry people are talking about sustainability, different growers and supply chain participants are at different stages but those who intend to be in the industry for the long term realise they must be engaged in the conversation now," Hoodless said.
For more information:
Ben Hoodless
IFPA A-NZ
Tel: +61 408 114 971
www.freshproduce.com