Some partnerships go perfectly together, it’s like peanut butter and jelly. Or maybe it’s more like avocado and toast.
That’s the case for Apeel and our partner, Nature’s Pride, one of Europe’s largest avocado importers - it has been a delicious harmony of values, missions, and shared ethos from Day 1. Having helped Nature’s Pride reduce their customer waste by 50%, while increasing their sales by double digits, we’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together in such a short amount of time and ready to share the meal...err, news.
If you’ve ever eaten an avocado in Europe, chances are you’ve enjoyed one from Nature’s Pride. They pioneered the process of ripening exotic fruit and popularized the avocado in the European Union. These days, Nature’s Pride is making waves and a big sustainability impact working with Apeel to extend the shelf life of their produce.
To share a glimpse of what it’s been like to work with Apeel, we asked the Nature’s Pride team a few questions about how they see the partnership.
What is the mission at Nature’s Pride and how has Apeel helped you get closer to achieving it?
Nature’s Pride: Our mission is to make the world more healthy and sustainable. As one of the largest importers of produce in Europe, we source more than 230 different fruits and vegetables from 58 countries. We aim for long-term relationships: with growers, customers, and partners –– like Apeel –– that we are proud to work with. With Apeel, we inspire each other to continue to develop innovations.
What made you want to work with Apeel in the first place?
Nature’s Pride: We have really good growers with fantastic products, but the transport of their produce sometimes takes 21 days. When we ripen avocados, it’s inevitable we lose some fruit.
We see our retailers also losing some of this fruit, and we just want to make it so that the consumer can enjoy the most of it –– the way nature intended –– and not be disappointed. We have always stood for high quality, so we wanted to prove we could bring that to an even higher level. With Apeel, we saw a way to make that happen. And we share the same values, too. So in 2018, we reached out to Apeel to partner with us to help extend the quality of our produce and reduce our environmental impact. It just fit into what we’re trying to achieve and we’ve been working together ever since.
What’s it been like working with Apeel?
Nature’s Pride: From the beginning, we were in contact intensively about how we can make this work. I think the biggest differences with Apeel is that engineering is integrated. We integrated their Apeel machinery fully in our packing and ripening facilities, and we kind of adopted the Apeel team as well. We go biking together and, before COVID, we enjoyed dinners out together. But most importantly, we’re working together very closely.
What has been the feedback from your retailers who have featured Apeel Avocados?
Nature’s Pride: To be able to get this high quality to our customers, it’s just been amazing. Their reactions have been amazing. I think it gives them the confidence to put more product on the shelf. What we’ve seen is like a 50% reduction of waste, which is a huge amount. And, on top of that, a double-digit growth in sales. The avocados taste better because there’s more moisture staying inside of the fruit, which makes them more creamy. So consumers are, no doubt, going to enjoy them more. And we’re actually giving the consumers a longer shelf life to enjoy their produce, which is amazing.
How would you say Apeel and Nature’s Pride align in terms of their missions?
Nature’s Pride: I’d say we’re on the exact same page with our mission of reducing all of the food waste we can, using this technology, and doing whatever we can. These are huge impacts on environmental possibilities. And with Apeel, we are looking into even more opportunities. I don’t think we can even fathom yet all that lies ahead of us with these possibilities. It’s amazing, long term, to start planning how this partnership gives us great opportunities to really change the world and make things better together.
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