Maximising biological crop protection. Sustainability starts at the source!
All growers utilise natural enemies to combat diseases and pests, ensuring that the cultivation of tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and aubergines maximises biological crop protection. This means that the use of chemical products is restricted to a bare minimum. Parasitic wasps, predatory mites, and gall midges eat troublesome pests such as thrips, whiteflies, lice, and spider mites. We rely on nature to get the job done!
Our growers use almost 3.5 times less water than their European counterparts,
as the plants in the greenhouse are watered with rainwater instead of tap water. All the water that falls on the greenhouses is collected by the growers in silos. After watering, the growers collect the excess water again. This water is filtered and used again for the next watering session. This ensures that our tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and aubergines receive exactly what they need and that not a drop of water goes to waste.
Sustainable energy: geothermal heat instead of natural gas.
A large number of our growers uses geothermal heat. It is thanks to the businesses in the greenhouse horticulture sector that we already have about twenty sources of geothermal heat in the Netherlands. Growers pump hot water from about a kilometre under the surface to heat the greenhouse, ensuring that they need less natural gas to produce heat.
Less food waste Why waste great taste?
All the vegetables produced by our growers are delicious, even those that wouldn't win a beauty contest. We work together with Food Fellows to get the best out of these special salads. They are given a new purpose as a delicious tomato base, tasty pasta sauce, or rich tomato soup using the flavours provided by nature without any additions. Our partner Snijpunt also knows what to do with the vegetables not pretty enough to make it to the supermarket shelves. Snijpunt processes these vegetables into valuable ingredients for ready-to-use mixes. Nothing goes to waste.
A step forward in sustainable packaging with rPET
Everyone was shocked to see the images of the plastic soup in our oceans. TNI and Harvest House therefore developed a packaging policy that makes clear choices. Our main priority is to keep the use of packaging to an absolute minimum. The second priority is that the packaging we do use has to be recyclable.
We take account of the fact that our salads must be kept in good condition right up to the supermarket and beyond. This is because ninety per cent of our environmental impact is in the product itself. So, if consumers throw away valuable food, this is even more harmful to our planet. That is why we are looking for an optimal balance between the protection of our products and the use of as little packaging as possible.
By conducting Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), we have a clear insight into the environmental effects of our products and know the environmental impact of specific materials. This knowledge enables us to make well-considered choices together with our retail clients. This led to the replacement of OPS by rPET in 2019, as rPET is easier to recycle.
TNI wants to make an active contribution to making the world a better place.
Eating a variety of tasty vegetables every day is not only healthy, but also better for the planet than meat and fish, for example. Help the climate by making vegetables your basis! TNI wants to make top-quality vegetables available to everyone and encourage people throughout Europe to eat more vegetables. We believe that a healthy and sustainable lifestyle is a better way of life.
The first Fairtrade tomato grower in the world.
TNI delivers the first Fairtrade-certified tomatoes in the world. Desert Joy (a company of the Dutch Agro Care) grows these delicious and fair tomatoes in Tunisia according to the Fairtrade standards. This means that Desert Joy produces these tomatoes with respect for people and the environment.
They do this by giving their employees a permanent job and chances to develop themselves, as well as by giving men and women equal opportunities. The team itself decides which projects will receive extra support from a fund, such as a kitchen for preparing lunch or a visit by a general practitioner. Buying these Fairtrade tomatoes from TNI contributes to the development of the local population.
Do you have a heart for sustainably grown vegetables?
