Dutch retailer Jumbo is removing plastic covers from red peppers and cucumbers grown in the country.
The retailer also plans to remove the plastic packaging from its spring onions before the summer of this year.
The company added that the initiative will help remove 51,000 kilograms of plastic from its operations annually, or the equivalent of 142 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The move aligns with Jumbo's climate ambitions and follows the retailers previous decision to no longer import potatoes, vegetables and fruit via air.
Packaging Reduction
Jumbo is seeking to cut the use of packaging materials by 20% by 2025, compared to 2020, and is continuously looking, in collaboration with chain partners, at how it can use less packaging material or package products better.
The company has already phased out free plastic disposable bags for potatoes, vegetables and fruit.
The retailer offers reusable fresh bags for unpacked fruit and vegetables, which helps save 35 million plastic bags per year, it added.
Jumbo aims to have achieved a 50% emission reduction in its product chains by 2030, together with its suppliers.
By 2050, the company wants to be completely climate neutral, both in its own chain (scope 1 and 2) and in the product chains (scope 3), it added.
A Winning Formula
Last month, the Dutch retailer noted that ‘emphasising the distinctiveness of [its] formula is now more important than ever’, as it committed to its ‘Jumbo zoals Jumbo bedoeld is’ (‘Jumbo as Jumbo intended’) business strategy for the coming year.
In its 2023 annual report, Jumbo noted that revenue went up by 7.3% for the year, to €11.02 billion, however, the revenue growth was largely driven by inflation and lower than the average market growth of 7.6% in the Netherlands.
