Our approach on water

Water is an essential part of our ambition for the upcoming years.

We are committed to implement approved good water management standards with our producers, located in high water risk regions

To achieve this ambition, we joined IDH’s ‘Sustainable Initiative Fruit And Vegetables’ (SIFAV) as they developed a benchmarked ‘basket of water standards’ which will be used to promote implementation of water standards in regions in which the water risk is considered high. The list of high water risk regions is based on the water risk filter of ‘World Wide Fund’ (WWF).

In addition Salud Foodgroup Europe committed to actively promoting best water practices, water use efficiency, and collective action in our avocado and mango sourcing regions.

Responsible water management, Ica, Peru

Background

The Ica valley lies in a coastal region of the Peruvian pacific coastline and is an agricultural basket for many international agricultural value chains. With virtually no rainfall, agriculture is mostly based on groundwater supplies. Although the agricultural boom has brought significant social and economic benefit to the Ica people, the Ica catchment is under important environmental pressures because of high water scarcity with significant drops in aquifer levels.

In 2020-2021, Good Stuff International (GSI) applied the Catchment Passport Methodology in Ica. A Catchment report shows the insights for all involved stakeholders in the value chain. A technical document, based on information from publicly available sources. This report was the starting point for multistakeholder engagement and a water stewardship roadmap of action.

Objectives

We as SIFAV partner took the opportunity to efficiently implement water stewardship in this high water risk sourcing region, by co-investing in- and scaling an existing, locally validated, multi-stakeholder collective action.

By doing so, Salud will help improve water retention, decrease erosion, and improve pasture availability as well as water availability upstream. This is key for sustainable livelihoods of the rural communities. Furthermore, it improves the resilience of sourcing and addresses our 2025 ambition to promote water stewardship.

In 2022, 5 SIFAV partners collaborated in an IDH co-funded project to engage in several objectives. These objectives have been translated into (1) build capacity on water management in our purchase department and the producers and growers we work with, (2) deepen knowledge from the catchment passport, (3) develop a shortlist of projects to potentially address these and (4) prioritize and develop a project plan to implement with both the SIFAV partners and local producers.  

The project aims to improve water retention and water availability in the Ica catchment and to reduce erosion in the upstream community of Tambo.

Some objectives of the project are to:

• Implement water harvest practices in Tambo: for example digging infiltration ditches, placing reservoirs and planting seedlings.
• Improve the sustainability of livelihoods in the Tambo communities: work with local communities as product of the landscape interventions.
• Monitor catchment effects of the interventions and impact on the catchment water cycle
• Validate project results using a water stewardship approach locally.
• Establish a supply chain mechanism to sustain the intervention and ensure water stewardship after the project ends: engaging SIFAV, their local suppliers and other stakeholders to define and agree on a sustainable model.

This proven multi-value chain collective action and water stewardship towards catchment resilience in a key agricultural catchment has a direct impact on water retention time, increased rate of water infiltration and impact on the downstream aquifer system by increasing recharge volumes.

It also strengthens the link between the upper and mid catchment stakeholders and connects local authorities.

Development

In 2023 the collaboration will continue by implementing, improving, monitor, validate and establish this sustainable water stewardship approach.

Salud is very proud to be part of this multistakeholder project, because together we can achieve more!