Leading Dutch fresh produce import-export company Nature's Pride has won the Latin America Trade Award 2011, a biennial prize organised by the Netherlands-Latin American Business Council.
The company, which sources two-thirds of its imported fruit and vegetable volume from Latin America, beat a number of other companies to the prize, including Hagé International, the import division of Dutch marketer The Greenery, and Priva, a sustainable climate management consultancy.
Also nominated was the Wageningen University and Research Centre, which runs a large number of horticulture-related R&D projects.
In the past 12 months, Nature’s Pride has redoubled its efforts to improve the commercial situation for its supply partners in Latin America by encouraging a number of its Peruvian mango growers to have their production certified as Fairtrade.
The company is aiming to offer year-round supply of Fairtrade mangoes this year and, in due course, will be looking to extend the project to other products in its portfolio.
'Each Fairtrade mango will be easily recognisable by its distinctive Fair for Life label,' explains Verloop. 'We hope to be seeing these stickers much more often on our customers’ shelves.'
