On 4 November, our PhD students visited our consortium partner Bakker for a look behind the scenes at their location in Ridderkerk, where a second hall is currently under construction.

Bakker is the main supplier of all fruit and vegetables to Albert Heijn. They are also active in Belgium and the Czech Republic for various supermarkets. In short, they are a major player in the (Dutch) food chain and one with considerable sustainability ambitions.

Sustainability ambitions

Rob Wessels and Jildou Smit took us through these ambitions to make the fruit and vegetable chains more sustainable. Bakker works closely with contracted growers in the Netherlands, but also imports many citrus fruits and other products from all over the world. They work with both Dutch and foreign growers on various projects and programmes to make cultivation more sustainable.

During the presentations it became clear how complex the interplay between farmers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers is. Bakker strives for predictability in the chain, while harvests are becoming increasingly uncertain due to climate change. Retailers, on the other hand, want a constant supply of fruit and vegetables of consistent quality. How do you achieve that?

Green grapes

Making changes for the sake of the environment and sustainability takes time, according to Rob. He gave the chain of red table grapes as an example. Many people want to see less use of crop protection products on fruit. This seems possible for red grapes, provided we accept that they lose some of their colour and are therefore greener. But who decides whether these greener grapes make it to the supermarket? How far can Bakker go without losing customers to competitors who do sell red grapes? And how do you inform consumers? These are questions that Bakker is constantly grappling with.

Tour of the facilities

Of course, we were also given a tour of the halls where oranges were sorted and meal packages were filled. An enormous logistical operation and impressive to realise that 10 million plates are filled with these products each day.

Thank you Rob and Jildou for your hospitality and an interesting afternoon!