Other ingredients

Our wider approach

As well as the progress we have made on sustainable tea and sustainable palm oil, our Sustainable Agriculture Programme is working with farmers to progress Good Agricultural Practice Guidelines for other crops and ingredients that we use in our brands. These range from fruit and vegetables including tomatoes and gherkins, to dairy, eggs and other major vegetable oils. We aim to promote more sustainable growing practices that protect the environment and provide economic benefits for farmers, such as encouraging the cultivation of allanblackia seeds and the Hoodia gordonii plant.

Fruit & vegetables

During 2008 we continued to work closely with our supply management function to communicate our guidelines to our most significant global suppliers of fruit and vegetables. Our brands, particularly Knorr, rely heavily on the ingredients these suppliers provide. We have asked our suppliers to complete a self-assessment against our guidelines and have developed a software system, called Quickfire, to enable us to store and track this information.

The spinach we use in our Italian Findus brand is grown by contract farmers in Italy. Most effort is put into Integrated Pest Management, a pest control management system that involves using less chemicals to control weeds, diseases and insects, together with more cultural and biological controls such as pest and disease resistant crop varieties, crop rotation and natural predators.

Weeds are problematic because they affect the quality of spinach crops. We use an Integrated Weed Management approach consisting of non-chemical weed control methods for use alongside herbicides where necessary. We are also working to reduce the amount of fertiliser applied to our crops. Our research, done in collaboration with the Experimental Institute for Plant Nutrition in Rome, found that reducing fertiliser inputs need not affect yields. Since then the amount of potash applied has been reduced by 56%, phosphorus by 53%, and potassium and nitrogen by 40%, and the average yield per hectare has increased.

Tomatoes

Unilever uses about 7% of the world volume of industrially processed tomatoes. Most of our tomatoes are grown under contract by farmers in Brazil and the United States. We are working with our tomato growers in these countries to investigate a range of sustainable agriculture practices. So far the programmes have focused on improving soil fertility, water management and pest control. We have found, for example, that the use of drip irrigation can halve water consumption. We are developing new sources of supply from China and India, where we will introduce sustainable agriculture practices from the start.

In the US we are leading a multi-stakeholder group to develop a common metric for measuring water use in tomato irrigation and  working with specialists to develop water efficiency advice for farm irrigation.

Gherkins

In India we supply growers with agricultural advice, seeds, fertilisers and pesticides to enable them to grow gherkins (also known as 'cornichons') for a range of approved suppliers. Unilever offers the farmer a guaranteed price fixed at the start of the season. Both parties benefit. For the farmer, it means a secure income. For Unilever, it means a secure supply for our Amora brand.

Unilever's gherkin suppliers in southern India work with a total of 6 500 small farm holders. Together they produce 7 000 tons of premium quality gherkins each year.

Pests, disease and the availability of sufficient water are key issues. Unilever is working with the Indian Ministry of Agriculture and academic institutions to investigate ways of funding drip irrigation systems. We are also experimenting with ways to reduce the water inputs needed by up to 40%, as well as minimising the amount of pesticides required.

Gherkin suppliers, with the help of Unilever managers, monitor the crops closely to ensure that measures against pests and diseases are taken when necessary. This has helped to improve yields by up to 50% since 1998.

Our work in India can be read in an article in 'Monsoons & Miracles' and in a recent article 'Unilever work with Indian gherkin growers to reduce pesticide use' published in Pesticides News, June 2008, Issue 80, pp 10–11.

Dairy

Ben & Jerry's promotes sustainable practices in dairy farming through its Caring Dairy programme in Europe and the Dairy Stewardship Alliance in Vermont, US.

The Caring Dairy programme, which began in 2003 in Europe, has developed individual improvement plans for all participating farmers. The programme has expanded to include 500 dairy farmers and 25 000 cows in the Netherlands. In 2008 over 140 workshops were organised in which farmers were able to benchmark their performance on different sustainability issues like energy use, converting bio-gas into energy, greenhouse gas emissions, using fewer pesticides, maintaining high standards of animal welfare, biodiversity, labour and farm economics.

To make this programme visible to consumers, Ben & Jerry's launched a website on sustainable dairy farming which also allows farmers to tell their story (see related links).

The Dairy Stewardship Alliance has developed a self-assessment toolkit which was used by over 50 Vermont farmers in 2008. Farmers have implemented changes on their farms based on the use of the toolkit.

Eggs

We are taking animal welfare seriously as a social, ethical concern. We believe that battery cages are animal unfriendly.

Ben & Jerry's has used only cage-free eggs in its European ice cream since 2004 and has undertaken to extend this commitment to all US-sourced eggs by the end of 2010.

In 2008 our Hellmann's, Amora and Calvé brands announced their commitment to source only cage-free eggs for products sold in Western Europe. This equates to removing over 1.7 million hens from battery cages. From mid-2008, all Hellmann's mayonnaise on sale in the UK and Ireland was made with cage-free eggs and we are on track to achieve our target by 2010, two years ahead of schedule. Animal-welfare NGO Compassion in World Farming awarded Unilever two Good Egg Awards in recognition of this move.

Vegetable oils

We have extended our work out of palm oil into other major vegetable oils including soy, rapeseed, sunflower and olive oil. Here we have several sustainability projects in progress.

We are working with our main soy bean oil supplier for Hellmann's in the US to check their supply base (approximately 10 000 farmers) on agricultural practices and to compare this with sustainability criteria such as those developed by the Roundtable on Responsible Soy.

We are in the process of developing sustainable rapeseed supply chains for our spreads manufacturing in Germany. A pilot study launched in 2009 is assessing farming practices at 30 farms in Germany’s Salzgitter region against Unilever’s rapeseed oil Good Agricultural Practice Guidelines. It is hoped the study will pave the way for fully traceable and certifiable sustainable rapeseed oil by 2012. We are also in discussion with a major supplier to support a study of sustainability criteria for sunflower seed farming in France.

Creating new sources of supply

In addition to the above, we are also creating new sources of supply and income for poor farmers.

• Allanblackia

Allanblackia trees grow largely in the wild in Central, East and West Africa and have traditionally been harvested on a subsistence basis. Allanblackia seeds produce an oil that is ideal for use in our spreads. We invested in a programme to scale up production in partnership with non-profit groups and local government. New trees were planted on small rural farms, boosting local incomes and creating a completely new source of supply for our business. See Economic development for more on the allanblackia programme.

• Paprika

In early 2009 we launched a programme to improve the livelihoods of impoverished farmers from Keiskammahoek in South Africa’s Eastern Cape region by encouraging paprika farming. We use over 1 000 tonnes of dried paprika a year in products such as Robertsons spice powder. We supply seedlings and technical expertise, as well as a guaranteed market for the paprika as part of a public-private partnership that includes the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Siyakholwa Development Foundation, the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture, the University of Fort Hare, Fort Cox Agricultural College and the local municipality.

The programme servers a dual function, securing a reliable supply of paprika for Unilever while providing an income for local people and helping them to develop their farming and business skills. Once complete, the programme will cover 300 hectares providing jobs for people in an area that suffers from 80% unemployment.