Alfred Pedersen & Søn – Why should good vegetables go to waste?
28.09.2020
The Funen nursery, Alfred Pedersen & Son, makes the most of every tomato, pepper and cucumber by selling the “ugly vegetables” that would otherwise go to waste!
Back in May 2017, when Claus Duedal Jakobsen was hired as Sales Manager at Alfred Pedersen & Søn, the horticulture’s green journey began in earnest! When Claus took a tour of the production, he wondered why good vegetables went to waste when they could be sold for other alternatives. These are second-grade vegetables that used to go to waste, but are now available at a reduced price in a number of Danish supermarkets.
Already in 2017, Alfred Pedersen & Søn entered into a partnership with Rema 1000 and the consumer movement Stop Spillage Af Mad, where they initially launched a test run to see if consumers had any interest in buying the “ugly vegetables” – and fortunately they did!
In 2018, more partners joined and today you can also buy the “ugly vegetables” from Alfred Pedersen & Søn at Salling Group, which covers Bilka, Føtex and Netto. Today, the desire to get the maximum out of vegetables has certainly not diminished at the Funen nursery. No more vegetables are produced here than can be sold in the Danish supermarkets.
According to Claus Duedal Jakobsen, however, this development would not be possible without the adaptable employees at Alfred Pedersen & Søn. According to him, development has required a major cultural change at the nursery, where everyone had to get used to looking at vegetables with different eyes. The company could not have done this without its employees, who have pulled together and made the initiative a reality.
What now?
The desire to get the most out of vegetables has therefore not diminished at the Danish nursery, which has today found further alternatives to reduce its waste. The nursery sends their overripe tomatoes to ketchup production instead of throwing it in the bin. All this while the green tomatoes, which are picked off to provide better growing conditions, are pickled and sold as green pickled tomatoes. But, what about the last, which does not go to ketchup production? In January 2020, Alfred Pedersen & Son took the next step in their green journey, and therefore get the last 2-2.5% picked up by Daka ReFood, which recycles the vegetables for fertilizer and biogas. This way, the nursery manages to get the most out of every tomato, pepper and cucumber!
However, it is only natural that the amount of food waste varies greatly at a nursery like Alfred Pedersen & Søn, where more goes into the waste bin in summer than in winter. Claus Duedal Jakobsen is therefore pleased that the nursery has a collection scheme with Daka ReFood, where the waste bin is collected as needed, and where there is the possibility of getting more bins during the periods when there is a greater need for them. Claus Duedal Jakobsen is therefore very optimistic about continuing the development, and hopes that within a period of 3-5 years the nursery will be able to reduce their food waste even further. In addition to the product development, which will ensure a larger share of first-class products, the nursery also hopes to optimise the sorting of tomatoes for ketchup production. In this way, they will reduce the amount of leftover vegetables for Daka ReFood to around 1%. A goal that the sales manager considers ambitious, but also realistic!
Find more information about Alfred Pedersen & Søn on tomater.dk or find out about the advantages of a pick-up scheme at Daka ReFood.