Transforming produce packaging starts with one small change, panel says

PALM DESERT, Calif. — Conveying delicate, perishable fruits and vegetables safely from farm gate to kitchen counter involves equal parts art and science.

While the industry has come a long way from the bulky plastic foam containers of decades past, today’s sustainable produce packaging options still have room to grow. The need for improved packaging solutions, higher adoption rates and additional innovative materials has never been more pressing as North America’s dependence on single-use plastics becomes increasingly fraught.  

A panel of experts spanning the fresh produce and packaging supply chain shared their struggles and triumphs in moving the needle in sustainable packaging for fresh fruits and vegetables at the 2023 Sustainable Produce Summit, held May 18 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa.  

What’s the point of packaging anyway?

“It's important to remember that our food waste is going be a lot higher without the right packaging materials, and the industry has come a long way,” panel moderator and Farm Fresh to You CEO Thaddeus Barsotti said in kicking off the discussion.

If you look at packaging broadly, packaging exists to ultimately extend the life of what it carries, said Marco Bini, CEO of NexxtPack.

“But it carries the values and the messaging from the farmer to the consumer. There is a message element to packaging — you have to sell products at the end of the day,” he added.

Opportunities and innovations in the market

Not only is produce packaging highly varied when it comes to materials, shape and size, the packaging market today is inundated with new ideas and technologies for growers and packaging producers to pilot commercial adoption.

“A lot of new systems now are leveraging technology to enable better tracking, tracing and accountability for assets in the systems that are being used,” said Jonathan North, vice president of sustainable and core solutions at Rehrig Pacific.

With all the opportunities to experiment and invest in more sustainable packaging solutions, what’s holding producers back?

Often, it comes down to cost.

What consumers say they're going to purchase and what they actually purchase in the store are often two different things, said West Rock’s Kelly Morris.

“One of the things that we focus on is looking at the entire supply chain,” Morris said. “If you're going to move into a more sustainable material, it's likely that that's going to come with a higher price cap.

"One of the things that you can do is you look at the entire supply chain and ask, ‘Where are there opportunities for us to take costs out?’" she continued. "It that takes a strong relationship with your supplier and openness and a willingness to do that. But when you find those opportunities, you can reduce your total costs of the package.”

Improving produce packaging happens one small step at a time

One area that often slows down producers from improving their produce packaging is not being able to recognize that perfection often gets in the way of "good enough," said Emerald Packaging’s Todd Somers.

He said the biggest step, more times than not, is simply getting people to take the first few steps in the right direction.

“When we add up the one, two, three, four, five steps — suddenly you've made a big difference!” Somers said. “It’s honestly much easier to talk to people about taking smaller steps to get to the larger sustainability goals.”  

The magic bullet doesn’t exist, and organizations can spend a lot of time looking for one instead of getting started, he added.

Moving away from the industry’s reliance on single-use plastic packaging won’t happen overnight and will likely involve a combination of industry, regulation and collaborative problem-solving to turn the tide.

“Step 1 is mandating different measures, including no-emission trucks. There's also grants to help that happen, but we have to make that happen,” said OK Produce CEO Brady Matoian.

For a packaging evolution to take hold in fresh produce, especially leafy greens, a combination of things must come together to catch a "snowball effect," he said.  

“I'm optimistic because of venture capital funds, which seems like an oxymoron. But venture capital money is coming into the recycle industry,” Somers said. “Really smart people see [recycling] as being a profitable industry.”

At the end of the day, a steady stream of funding is another positive sign sustainable packaging is a sound investment for organizations across the supply chain and is only gaining traction.