Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. has announced the future launch of Del Monte Zero, its first carbon neutral certified pineapple, which will be available for North American and European consumers in early 2023.

Del Monte Zero is validated as a sustainably grown fruit by third-party certification body SCS Global Services, a world leader in verification, auditing, testing and standards development.

The assessment took into account the entire supply chain and included the forests near Fresh Del Monte's eight pineapple farms in Costa Rica.

"SCS Global Services determined that the greenhouse gas emissions of Del Monte Zero pineapples have been offset by the reabsorption of the forests that the company has and preserves in the national territory, which makes the carbon footprint of this product zero," said Michael Calderón, spokesman for Fresh Del Monte.

Del Monte’s long-standing sustainability program involves carefully selected monitoring plots, which incorporate areas of forest in conservation to capture CO2.

This is, in addition to the continuous monitoring and quantification of greenhouse gas emissions in each of the related production operations, such as packaging, transportation and marketing.

These efforts allow Del Monte to substantiate the relationship between emissions and removals related to carbon neutrality.

The development of this nature-based solution, also known as insertion, is part of a commitment that the company has adopted to combat climate change. Investments in upgrading its transportation fleet also enabled it to reach this important milestone.

The more than 8,000 hectares of forest that the company owns in the country, containing approximately five million trees, neutralize the emissions produced by the Del Monte Zero pineapple from the field to the table, Calderón explained. 

With this initiative, Del Monte Zero pineapples are expected to not only generate awareness among its current customers and partners, but also provide consumers with a unique opportunity to support more environmentally friendly products.