Sustainability Insights Report
Drawing on comprehensive feedback from growers, retailers and consumers across the fresh fruit and vegetable industry, The Packer’s 2026 Sustainability Insights report reveals how sustainability has evolved from a niche marketing strategy into a business necessity. Explore our exclusive research and reporting to discover how supply chain leaders are leveraging sustainable practices to mitigate climate risk, protect razor-thin margins and build lasting resilience.
Driven by younger sustainability-minded generations, fresh produce purchases are shifting from strict environmentalism into personal lifestyle choices, with organic and local sourcing taking center stage.
Unclear definitions and strict standards keep farmers from claiming the regenerative title, but practical economic benefits are driving steady adoption.
Findings from The Packer’s 2026 Sustainability Insights report highlight the severe financial strain on specialty crop growers as retail prices fail to keep pace with production expenses.
The Packer’s Sustainability Insights 2026 shows retailers are pursuing sustainability to drive business efficiency, boost margins and strengthen supply reliability rather than depend on consumer premiums.
Sustainability Insights 2026 finds that as reliance on consumer price premiums fades, growers and retailers are turning to operational sustainability to defend margins, build climate resilience and survive rising supply chain costs.
At Climate Week NYC, WRAP is demonstrating how collaborative Food Pacts and targeted interventions across retail supply chains and households transform perishable produce waste from a carbon burden into immediate financial savings.
Both groups see sustainable produce packaging as important to the overall sustainability of their lives and businesses respectively.
Consumer definitions of what sustainability means are wide-ranging and challenging, but companies today are trying to meet those demands while also looking forward to the future.
Nathan Pumplin, the CEO behind the Empress Purple Tomato, says we’re just a few years away from consumers seeing “bioengineered” as a premium, sought-after label in produce.
The Packer’s Sustainability Insights 2025 reveals that growers cite much lower numbers for how much consumers are willing to pay for sustainable packaging than the consumers themselves.
If you’re a grower-packer-shipper or retailer looking to capture the hearts of sustainability-minded consumers, eco-friendly packaging might be the most powerful tool you have, Sustainability Insights 2025 finds.
The Packer’s Sustainability Insights 2025 survey of retailers shows that sustainability can mean different things to different people, from environment to food quality to logistics to economics and beyond.
The Packer’s Sustainability Insights 2025 survey of growers underscores that U.S. growers still consider on-farm sustainability efforts fundamental to their operation’s long-term business strategy and economic success.
The Packer’s 2025 Sustainability Insights report explores how growers, retailers and consumers are thinking about sustainability, prioritizing it in their businesses and lives, and defining what it means to them and the future of the planet’s health and food supply.
The Packer asked these groups what sustainability means to them as part of its Sustainability Insights 2025 report, and while the results seem similar, the underlying motivation is different.