Our Water Stewardship Journey

Water is the source of life. In addition to being essential for drinking water and hygiene, water is indispensable to make our everyday items ranging from clothes to cell phones, to –most essentially– our food. Like any living organism, fruits and vegetables need water to grow. Nature’s Pride understands that it is virtually connected to the water situation in producing countries through the fruits and vegetables it imports. In a world of increasing water stress, we are developing value chain strategies that support responsible water use on the ground, for the well-being of communities, the environment, and the business we share with our dedicated growers, clients, and consumers.

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Desk and field research

In 2018 we set out to radically better understand water in our value chain. We assigned an internal topic owner, created a high-level internal working group, and hired water experts. We visited our growers, created water risk maps and our water strategy.

Moving into Action

Launched in 2019, our first water strategy had three levels.

Procurement and Growers

We introduced water compliance and were the first in our sector to do the GLOBALG.A.P SPRING water audit. With our dedicated growers, we increased water saving through better irrigation, water reuse, and improved soil management. And we raised internal awareness about water.

Sector Advocacy

As chair of SIFAV (Sustainability Initiative Fruits and Vegetables), Nature’s Pride spearheaded the water agenda for the fresh produce sector in Europe. We engaged with stakeholders ranging from conservation organizations such as WWF, to retailers and other traders, to set concrete water targets for our sector. These were officially adopted in the SIFAV 2025 work program. At the same time, Nature’s Pride also advocated for value chain collaboration at global conferences such as the World Water Week and the EU Water Innovation Conference, organized by the European Commission.

Stewardship at Catchment Level

Nature’s Pride was also the first in our sector to initiate collective action for water stewardship in sourcing countries. Across the globe, major fruit-producing regions are starting to experience increased water stress: from Chile to Peru, from the Western Cape to Morocco and Spain. For long-term resilience, it’s crucial to balance overall water demand with water availability in these areas.

Value Chain Collective Action

By 2020, we were ready for the next step. After much preparation, we created together with IDH–The Sustainable Trade Initiative the Ica Catchment Passport, a technical baseline analysis of the water situation in Ica, co-created and locally validated through a stakeholder-inclusive process. Simultaneously, we embedded water into our procurement processes, created an in-house water training for our buyers, and, amidst the COVID19 pandemic, started projects to improve access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) for communities in our sourcing countries.

Sustainability

Partners for Water

In 2021 we reached another milestone: together with Partners for Water (The Netherlands government’s prime water program) we created the Aconcagua Catchment Passport in Chile, a process similar to the one completed one year before in Peru. At the same time, under the umbrella of SIFAV, we shared what we learned about Ica with our competitors, raising awareness and setting the stage for pre-competitive collective action in our sector. We also expanded our water work to Spain where our strawberry growers led by example by passing the WWF Spain water check.

In 2022 we reached what we had been working on for many years: Ica was officially chosen by SIFAV members as the first catchment for collective action. Collective action in our sector on water became a reality – an achievement we are proud of.

Reaching the Global Stage

In 2023 Nature’s Pride was invited to speak at the United Nations Water Conference in New York. We took the opportunity to share our experience about collective action for responsible water use and to advocate for stronger collaboration across the entire value chain.

Broadening the Scope

In 2024 Nature’s Pride launched its 2028 People & Nature Strategy which includes five fields of action on water: compliance (water audits), science-based reduction of impact on water availability, collective action in priority catchments, WASH (access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), and advocacy. This new strategy also includes biodiversity which is intimately linked to water. Continuing our commitment to step up, speak out, and activate our sector we participated later that year in the United Nations Biodiversity Summit COP 16 in Colombia.

Our water stewardship journey is ongoing and we learn as we go along.

We invite you to join us. Let’s work together for a fresh produce sector that is in balance with people and nature.