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Marketing the most nutritious of products with the lowest environmental footprint, the fresh produce industry is inherently global, hugely fragmented and well positioned to benefit from evolving consumer lifestyle trends centred on good health and wellbeing and responsible consumption.
leader for bananas in North America and #2 position for bananas in Europe
position for pineapples in North America and #3 in Europe
global exporter of grapes
Dole plc is the global leader in fresh produce and category leader in a number of mainstream categories in key markets. We are the #1 leader for bananas in North America and hold the #2 position for bananas in Europe. We also hold the #2 position for pineapples in North America and Europe, the #2 position for Value Added Salads in the United States, and are the #1 global exporter of grapes. We are prominent global players in attractive growth categories such as organic produce, avocados and berries while we are the market leader in fresh produce provision a number of European markets supplying a wide portfolio of products and categories ranging from the more familiar to the truly exotic.
A confluence of lifestyle trends and macro-environmental factors have come together to drive the fresh produce category forward. Health and fresh fruit and vegetables have always been synonymous with one another. Today however, the sustainable credentials of fresh produce are also increasingly recognised and valued by consumers worldwide. The most nutritious of snacks, the fresh produce category is also well positioned to benefit from the global trends towards convenience while discernible “back to basics” trends, most notably those towards a return to home cooking and buying local also point to opportunities for the fresh produce sector going forward.
Few industries can contend with such certainty that their core business- in this instance driving fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, makes so positive a contribution to public diet and general wellbeing. Ours is an industry of worth. It is all the more remarkable then, that fresh produce’s carbon, water and ecological footprint is also amongst the lowest of all the major food groups (See Vox chart below). As consumer preference for healthy, sustainable products continues to evolve and grow, the opportunities for the fresh produce sector are clear. As industry leader, Dole plc is well positioned to harness the potential evident in these trends.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions per Kilogram of Food Product (kg CO2-Equivalents per KG Product)
* CO2 emissions from most plant-based products are as muchas 10-50x lower than most animal-based products
Lowest VS Other Food
The discernible trend towards low preparation and convenience products is undeniable and understandable. Fruit, of course is inherently convenient. It is snacking as nature intended. For health and environmentally conscious consumers wanting to include more natural, unprocessed produce in their lifestyle choices and unwilling to compromise on nutrition, quality and flavour, time constraints can be a problem, however.
In Dole plc we are committed to meeting this consumer need and to empowering consumers to make better choices. We are fortunate to be able to work off a strong foundation: marketing healthy products, grown responsibly- our brand is known and trusted. We have embraced and invested in innovation, targeting the prepared salad and vegetable, meal kit and fresh cut sectors, integrating a new product development pipeline to create bespoke solutions and ensure ongoing evolution and revolution across our product portfolio. In doing so, we believe we have developed a range of its time, one that that meets the contemporary consumer’s demand for healthy, convenience snacks and mealtime solutions.
Consumer loyalty towards locally grown produce is a feature of many markets in which we operate. Though encouraging consumption, maximising choice and ensuring year round availability of family favourite fruits and vegetables inevitably requires procurement from further afield, in Dole, we believe in local.
By virtue of our on-the ground infrastructure and operations in key markets, our people across the world have forged close relationships with the very best local growers in individual markets and integrated local supply into our annual seasonal calendars for local customers. We work hand in glove with these growers across Europe and North America providing agronomic, technical, financial, commercial, marketing and promotional support to local farmers and placing their produce at the very heart of our product offering.
Our capacity to deliver both the very best produce from around the world alongside the finest home grown fruits and vegetables not only marks us apart- it reflect also our commitment to make a positive contribution to the markets in which we operate.