Sustainable Juice
Our Juice Platform combines best agricultural practice at our fruit farms with state-of-the-art industrial performance at our processing plants. We also ship and transport our products efficiently to a variety of destinations, while preserving the quality of our juice.
Our juice production operations in Brazil focus on employee welfare and safety, designing work programmes to eliminate accidents and optimize productivity. We also invest in environmental solutions at our farms and industrial locations.
The sustainability efforts of our Juice Platform focus on people, community, environment and partners.
People
We believe that our people are our most valuable asset. We take our responsibility for the well-being of our entire workforce, which numbers 9,000 people in the Juice Platform at peak season, very seriously. All of our Juice team employees, whatever their contract, are on our payroll, and we do not outsource any component of labor related to farming, harvesting or industrial processing.
We go to great lengths to ensure that the work environment at LDC, including labor terms and conditions, demonstrates best industry practice.
Case Study
Supporting our people in the field
LDC invested in a new technology to help our teams to inspect and monitor pests with the help of an automated system. Following a successful pilot, the ProMIP (Project of Inspection of Pest Mobile), which is currently being rolled out, will improve efficiency of pest control with the use of a mobile application for data collection conducted by pest inspectors on motorcycles.
Environment
Our juice production is inherently environmentally sustainable, in that no part of the fruit is wasted. Residue from fruit juice production is used as a perfume, cosmetics or chemical ingredient, or as cattle feed and in other food products. In addition, we are making significant strides in measuring and improving our environmental footprint during juice production itself, across the following areas:
- Industrial energy consumption
- Carbon footprint
- Water usage
- Waste generation
Partners and Certifications
A key development in our sustainability efforts has been our successful certification process and partnership with the Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and other partners.
Our Juice operations are now certified across two dimensions:
- Farm-level certification
- Chain of custody certification
Community
LDC is an important employer in the Citrus Belt, Brazil’s main region for juice production, generating income for local communities, and helping to improve their quality of life. We also make significant contributions to social projects, aiming to support initiatives that improve the living conditions of local residents.
Case Study
Together for the Environment
Together for the Environment is an LDC-supported initiative whose principal objective is to raise awareness among elementary schoolchildren in Brazil about the importance of protecting the environment. Through this project, we bring children from local public schools to visit LDC’s orange farms, teaching them about the importance of water, riparian forest, wild fauna, recycling and sustainable agricultural practices.
