Who, what, why?

When it comes to our sweet fruits, our aromatic vegetables and our beautiful plants, you probably have a lot of questions. We can well understand that. Perhaps you would like to know how we grow our fruit? Or are you interested in how we protect the environment ? And what do we actually do for the people who grow and pick them?

And why does fruit have to be packaged? Questions upon questions. We have compiled perhaps the most common questions and their answers for you here. If you would like to know more about us and our sun favourites, we look forward to receiving your e-mail.

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FAQ

Why do you wrap your fruit in plastic?

The issue of plastic packaging has been on our minds for a long time, and we are of course working on environmentally friendly alternatives. With our natural paper bag for various types of grapes and stone fruit, we have already found packaging that is made primarily from recyclable material and protects the fruit with its material structure. We have carried out various tests with environmentally friendly materials and found that certain fruits stay fresh best in plastic. That’s why we still can’t do without plastic completely. After all, we want our fruit to reach you fresh.

The quality of our fruit – just like the taste – is our top priority.

Wherever we can, however, we do without plastic. We also try to use recycled plastic wherever possible – plastic that has already been in circulation. Nevertheless, we hope that we will soon have found a replacement for the environmentally harmful plastic that will also keep our fruit nice and fresh. Incidentally, we offer 60% of our fruit completely unpackaged and we want to increase this proportion even further.

Over the past ten years, we have already been able to save 1,400 tonnes of plastic. And if customers bring their own cloth bags, all the better! That also saves an enormous amount of plastic bags. We know that these are all small steps, but at some point they will amount to one big one! As you can see, we are working on saving even more packaging and using environmentally friendly packaging so that we can sustainably protect the basis of our existence, nature.

Do you use pesticides?

We want our fruit to taste as good to our customers as if it had just been freshly picked. That’s why we have very strict quality guidelines – from sowing to delivery to the supermarket. Our growers also strive to cultivate as naturally as possible. We regularly prune trees and plants and thin them out by hand so that they get enough light and air.

This is important for the longevity of the plant, its health and thus its resistance to diseases – and of course for magnificent, aromatic fruit (traditional mechanical method). A mix of dry and wet weather is the best basis for healthy and resistant trees and shrubs, which develop natural protection against many pests and diseases. Of course, we don’t always have this ideal weather. Periods of drought or even heavy rain and excessive humidity can stress and weaken plants and make them susceptible to pests and diseases.

However, if the plants are vigorous and are attacked by pests, we use natural predators (biological method). If the infestation is more severe, we also hang colour traps, mass traps or pheromone traps (scent traps) in the trees to minimise the pests (biochemical method).

This is often enough to save the plants, even if we always have to factor in crop losses, which we accept to a certain extent in order to avoid chemicals.

If there is no other option, the potential crop losses are too great, the plants or the entire plantation and the livelihood of our growers and employees are threatened, and the biological and biochemical methods have not helped, we use chemicals (chemical method). However, this decision is only made on the basis of economically and ecologically justifiable threshold values. SanLucar Master Growers weigh up the use of chemicals according to very strict criteria. Together with the Master Growers’ quality technicians, we monitor the use of pesticides.

The chemical residues evaporate over time. Before we harvest, we check our fruit to see if any residues are still present, and we only harvest if these are below the legally prescribed limits. Our fruit has also been awarded “very good” several times by well-known consumer protection organisations such as ÖKO-TEST. This form of integrated organic cultivation protects the environment and creates the best growing conditions for our fruit – so that it has the best taste and lots of good nutrients.

Why can product quality fluctuate?

If you have ever had a bad experience with our fruit, we are very sorry. But anyone who works hand in hand with nature knows that there can be no 100% guarantee of delicious fruit! Sometimes the weather simply throws a spanner in the works and is not as good as we would like for our fruit. Nevertheless, it helps to know exactly which fruit it is, where it was bought and what the lot number is. The lot number, which consists of several digits, can be found on the packaging, usually on the back. With its help, we can trace the exact path of our fruit and find out why it was not of the usual quality.

This also helps us to eliminate various problems. Without more detailed information, we can’t say why the fruit was bad or do anything about it. We have very strict quality guidelines from sowing to delivery of our fruit to the supermarkets.

Our Master Growers look after the plants and fruit with a great deal of passion and expertise. They nurture and care for them and give them everything they need for healthy growth. They check their sugar content and only when the fruit is really ripe are they carefully picked.

They are then checked several times and only the best are packaged and sent to the supermarkets ideally chilled as SanLucar fruit. When they arrive there, they are inspected again. If there are any defects, the fruit is not accepted. So if you find our SanLucar fruit in the supermarkets, it has also passed these strict market inspections. Because we want you to get the best fruit and vegetables from us.

What fruit and vegetables can you eat with diabetes?

Diabetics can also eat fruit and vegetables. However, we advise you to consult your doctor or nutritionist first. They can draw up an individual diet plan for you. There are two ways to find out which foods have what effect on your blood sugar. You can use the glycaemic index (Glyx) or the glycaemic load (GL). There are also numerous food tables on the Internet that provide important information. The lower the glyx or GL of a food, the better it is for diabetics (source: verbraucherzentrale.de). Apples, pears, grapefruits, cherries, kiwis, mangoes, oranges, peaches, plums and berries of all kinds have a low glyx and are therefore suitable for diabetics.

They also contain fibre, which delays the rise in blood sugar. Nevertheless, they should not be eaten to excess. “A daily portion of fruit that fits in the palm of your hand is ideal. This could be an apple and a pear or a handful of berries,” recommends Thomas Haak, Medical Director of the Diabetes Centre in Bad Mergentheim, for example. Tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, artichokes, cauliflowers, carrots, courgettes and asparagus usually contain less sugar and more of these can be eaten. Vegetables make you feel full and help to keep your body weight stable or even reduce it. They also provide many valuable vitamins and minerals as well as secondary plant substances, which colour tomatoes red or cucumbers green, for example, but can also be found in whole grain cereals and legumes. The more colourful and varied your diet, the more different vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals your body receives.

Important: The vegetables or fruit should not be heated for too long, as many vitamins are sensitive to heat. The best cooking method is steaming in a little water. Green leafy vegetables such as spinach, lettuce and cabbage (broccoli, kale, savoy cabbage) can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Scientists at the Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Leicester evaluated six studies on fruit and vegetables with data from 220,000 adults. Just one and a half portions a day (around 106 grammes) can reduce the risk of disease by 14%, writes the research team led by Patrice Carter in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Why green leafy vegetables in particular – and not fruit – have such an effect has not yet been clearly explained.

The scientists suspect that it could be related to antioxidants such as vitamin C or the high magnesium content of the vegetables. It is clear that green leafy vegetables have a variety of positive effects on the human immune system. To summarise: fruit in moderation, plenty of vegetables, but please always check with your doctor.(Sources: t-online.de / aerztezeitung.de / bmj.com).

Is SanLucar organic?

SanLucar fruit and vegetables are not organic. Nevertheless, our fruit is repeatedly awarded top marks by independent institutes such as ÖKO-TEST. Because even if our fruit does not carry the organic seal, it is all grown under our particularly strict SanLucar guidelines. Our Master Growers ensure that our fruit and vegetables are grown as naturally as possible.

This means that we always use beneficial insects or other biological agents first during the entire growing phase to combat any diseases or pest infestations.

We only use pesticides if the health of the plant is at risk – but only in moderate quantities! And it is only when any possible residues are below the strict legal limits that our fruit is harvested. Whether we use pesticides at all, and how much, therefore varies from case to case. If the growing conditions are ideal, pests and diseases are rare, so beneficial organisms are often sufficient.

What are you doing to conserve environmental resources?

SanLucar acts according to the guiding principle “Taste in harmony with people and nature”. First and foremost, we want to offer people healthy, delicious fruit and vegetables. But we also want nature and the people who work for us to do well. That is why we attach great importance to resource-conserving, sustainable, climate-friendly cultivation. Water is life and one of the most valuable commodities we have here on earth, and we must use it sustainably. On our South African farm Rooihoogte, for example, we have installed a digitally controlled irrigation system that enables us to save as much as 50% (!) of our water consumption. A total of 25 probes measure the moisture and temperature of the soil at different depths in our fields. This allows us to deduce the amount of water in the soil and special software tells us when and how much to water. The new system makes our daily work easier and helps us to save water – with pinpoint accuracy.

We have also installed a special irrigation system in our SanLucar tomato oasis in Tunisia and save 30% of water consumption by treating and reusing it.

On our strawberry and raspberry farm, a rainwater collection basin with a capacity of 7,000 cubic metres helps us to significantly reduce water consumption from wells.

Together with the Tunisian research centre for water technology CERTE, we are researching ways to further optimise irrigation.

In our growing area in El Hamma, there is a thermal spring that reaches temperatures of more than 60 °C. We use it to heat our greenhouses from November to March, thus saving a lot of energy. Once collected and cooled, the mineral-rich thermal water is added to the irrigation water in fine doses. It gives the tomatoes an intense aroma. At our headquarters in Puzol, Spain, our new office building meets the highest energy-efficiency criteria. We generate electricity from solar panels and can make optimum use of the hours of sunshine thanks to sophisticated, automatically controlled blinds. We need to heat less in winter and cool less in summer – both of which save electricity. Furthermore, our warehouse in Ettlingen in Germany has been lit by energy-efficient LED lamps since 2015, and the office building since April 2017. This saves us 90,000 kWh of energy per year and therefore 45 tonnes of CO2.

Are you socially involved? If so, what do you do?

Fair and social interaction with people is very important to us. SanLucar agricultural engineers regularly visit our cultivation partners to ensure that our strict guidelines are also adhered to in the area of work. We are also committed to education, nutrition, sport and environmental protection in our growing countries through our DREAMS programme.

For example, some 200 people live and work on our Rooihoogte farm. We have planted a permaculture garden there to promote self-sufficiency, everyone has access to a fitness room and there is an anti-alcohol programme. With the generous donation from the association, we bought the farm residents a bus so that they can easily travel to the nearest town to run errands. Education for the children is also particularly important to us. The little ones attend our free kindergarten, while we offer tutoring and school scholarships to the older ones, because education is the key to an independent life. In Tunisia, we open doors for people with mental or physical disabilities.

We support and work together with organisations such as AGIM (Association for People with Motor Deficits) and UTAIM (Tunisian Union for the Support of Mentally Disabled People). They integrate people with disabilities into the world of work. We also take part in the state programme “Companies as Partners for Schools”. This means that we renovate schools, restore schoolyards and finance learning materials. By creating a better learning environment for pupils and teachers, we are investing in the future of the country.

In collaboration with Tunisian universities, we give students the opportunity to complete their master’s degree in our tomato oasis in the south of the country and on the berry plantation in the north. For this commitment, we were awarded the Hannon Prize “for promoting co-development through responsible investment” in October 2019, in Bercy-Paris, out of a total of 20 companies.

In Ecuador, we founded a sports school in 2016 in collaboration with Club Atlético and the town hall of Puebloviejo. Here, 400 children can let off steam playing football and basketball all year round under the guidance of trained coaches. They also learn about team spirit, healthy living and good nutrition through play.

Since 2012, we have been offering SanLucar employees the opportunity to visit our farms in South Africa, Ecuador and Tunisia for a month and work on the DREAMS projects. Our partners have also been taking part in the programme since 2016.

But we are also active in Europe with our DREAMS projects. In Germany, for example, we have been donating fresh fruit to over 1,000 schoolchildren in Ettlingen every year since 2012. This allows them to experience how delicious fresh fruit tastes and how good it is for the body. In Austria, for example, we support the Pferde Stärken / Kinder Stärken association. Here, children with disabilities are given the opportunity to develop through contact with horses.

And in Spain, we have been serving hot meals to low-income people and families in our soup kitchen “El Puchero” every day since 2013.

Why do you offer fruit from abroad? Doesn’t this increase CO2 emissions?

Bananas, pineapples, mangoes, mandarins, oranges, avocados, grapes – many of the fruits we offer are not native to Germany. Nevertheless, customers want them because they are healthy and really tasty. That’s why we grow them abroad, but also offer German fruit and vegetables, such as apples, blueberries, raspberries, currants and tomatoes. Our mission is to provide everyone with the most natural, freshest and tastiest fruit and vegetables. And in a way that we can be proud of. Nature and the climate are very important to us; after all, we are particularly dependent on both.

That is why we are cutting down on the climate killer CO2 as much as possible. We work on this every day. And these are our measures so far: By recycling almost 1,000 tonnes of paper, cardboard, carton, glass and lightweight packaging, we have saved around 4,659 tonnes of primary resources. This has enabled us to avoid the production of 832 tonnes of CO2. To achieve this value, 66,000 trees would have to be planted, which would correspond to a forest area of around 8.18 hectares.

In 2017, we also started planting trees on vacant land at our hacienda in Magdalena, Ecuador. The reforestation on the banks of the Puebloviejo River will probably cost us a lot of effort in the coming years, but it is worth it to us because we are creating a natural ecosystem: the growing trees prevent soil erosion and create a new habitat for plants and wild animals. They also store considerable amounts of the greenhouse gas CO2.