Chief Sustainability Officer & Senior Vice President of Corporate R&D, QA and Agricultural Services, FRESH DEL MONTE PRODUCE INC
Prioritizing Sustainable Agriculture with Hans Sauter of Fresh Del Monte
https://impactpodcast.com/episode/2024/07/prioritizing-sustainable-agriculture-with-hans-sauter-of-fresh-del-monte/
About Hans Sauter
Hans Sauter, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate R&D, QA and Agricultural Services at Fresh Del Monte Produce, discussed the company’s sustainability efforts and challenges in a September 2024 podcast interview. He stated that climate change is making agricultural conditions tougher and requiring more inputs to produce the same amount of food. Sauter noted that Fresh Del Monte has a direct exposure to Tropical Race 4 (TR4), a fungal disease affecting bananas, in its Philippines operations, and described the disease as remaining in the soil for decades and making farms unsustainable after a few years. He said the company has invested in developing a resistant variety to TR4 in collaboration with other organizations. Sauter highlighted Fresh Del Monte’s innovations, including the Del Monte Gold pineapple, the bioengineered Pink Glow pineapple, and the Ruby Glow pineapple developed through traditional breeding. He said the company is close to reaching its Science Based Targets initiative goal of reducing scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 27.5%. Sauter also noted that bringing regenerative agriculture to tropical crops requires significant scientific research, as these crops have not received the same level of university research as temperate crops. He added that artificial intelligence has a role in agriculture, enabling precise, timely decisions at the acre or square foot level to save inputs and reduce environmental impact.
Transcript (48 segments)
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Narrator0:02
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John Shegerian1:31
Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. I'm John Shegerian, and I'm so honored to have with us today Hans Sauter. He's the Senior Vice President of R&D, Agricultural Services, and Chief Sustainability Officer for Fresh Del Monte. Hans, welcome to the Impact Podcast.
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Hans Sauter1:48
Thank you, John. It's a pleasure to be here.
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John Shegerian1:50
Hey, you know, Hans, we have a lot to talk about today about all the great work you're doing in sustainability and R&D over at Fresh Del Monte. But before we get into that, I'd like you to share a little bit about your background. Where were you born, where did you grow up, and how you got on this fascinating and important journey that you're on?
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Hans Sauter2:08
Well, I was born in Costa Rica, and I feel privileged for having grown up in a biological hotspot where I was always exposed to this huge diversity of nature. From very young, I was totally in love with our landscape. Even though I grew up in the city, I desperately wanted to be in the countryside, so I decided to go for agriculture. For my grad studies, I went to California to do my work in entomology and biological control, which was the way I felt I could contribute to making agriculture more compatible with nature. Now, after a whole life of working in agriculture and leading many programs, I have the privilege of influencing a big company like ours towards these new, more nature-positive outcomes.
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John Shegerian3:42
When you got out of grad school, what was your first job out of grad school?
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Hans Sauter3:46
I worked in Costa Rica at the University of Costa Rica. Not very long after that, however, I got tempted to go into the research department of Fresh Del Monte, precisely on the banana operation there in Costa Rica, and started doing some work on biological control.
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John Shegerian4:23
I don't want to go into everything about Fresh Del Monte yet. Tell me what your beautiful background is behind you there.
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Hans Sauter4:32
That's a pineapple farm at Fresh Del Monte in the southern part of Costa Rica.
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John Shegerian4:43
Wow, that is gorgeous. That is just simply gorgeous. It's hard... it's not hard, I can see why it's kind of easy to get up every morning and go to work if you're going to go to work somewhere as beautiful as that. Oh my gosh, that's beautiful. All right, so you first worked your way up at Fresh Del Monte in R&D and Agricultural Services before you became Chief Sustainability Officer, is that correct?
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Hans Sauter5:06
Correct. I worked for 25 years in Costa Rica, first in bananas as I was saying, and then leading the R&D programs in pineapples, where we launched a new, totally different variety of pineapples. At that time, pineapples in the major markets were mostly green and very acidic, and we decided to innovate and bring in a sweeter, yellow variety that totally took the market by surprise. In a matter of four years, it was the dominant variety, which is what you find nowadays in every retailer, every supermarket. It's called MD2, our Fresh Del Monte Gold variety.
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John Shegerian6:19
Just for our listeners and viewers, so we understand who Fresh Del Monte is, first of all, find Hans and all of his colleagues at Fresh Del Monte. You could go to www.freshdelmonte.com. Fresh Del Monte is one of the world's largest vertically integrated producers, distributors, and marketers of fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. They do over $4 billion in sales a year, have almost 50,000 employees, and their products are sold in over 80 countries. This is a big organization that you're the Chief Sustainability Officer of.
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Hans Sauter6:55
Yes, indeed. It's a very large and widespread organization.
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John Shegerian7:00
You know, Hans, sustainability now, there's an alphabet soup of issues that are talked about. Of course, ESG is one of them, and DEI and inclusivity is another, and then there's also the issue of the shift from the linear to circular economy. How wide or narrow is sustainability read at Del Monte in terms of your day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter, year-to-year? Is it a wide reading of sustainability or a narrow reading? How would you define what your role is in sustainability at Fresh Del Monte?
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Hans Sauter7:39
It's a very wide role, incredibly wide, and every day it becomes larger because new issues are being brought up and our awareness of impact is higher. We have a very large global footprint, and one of the most exciting things about the role is that with all the responsibility it carries, it also brings the opportunity to influence a large amount of people and significant operations around the world. It's amazing how many people can suddenly start sharing passion for conservation if you make it part of your DNA.
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John Shegerian8:46
Was there a Chief Sustainability Officer prior to you taking that role?
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Hans Sauter8:53
No.
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John Shegerian8:54
So you're the first. I love that. I love when I get to interview great people like you that are walking into that proverbial blank page. How did you even start that journey? Like, when you came, you're already at Fresh Del Monte, so you already knew the DNA of the company, but now you have that blank page of Chief Sustainability Officer. Where do you start the journey and put one foot in front of the other? What issues do you decide to work on first, and what do you put off as longer-term issues?
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Hans Sauter9:26
Well, the one advantage I had was the background of having worked with operations initially and understanding the farming reality. Many of the significant issues with sustainability in agriculture start at the primary production stage. That's where impact on soil, nature, deforestation, erosion, and even on communities can happen. Having been there and having worked intimately with those operations, I had good knowledge of what could be done and what could be leveraged. There was so much good that we were doing already. In this picture on my background, you can see the huge conservation areas that are intermingled in our farms, and that's not a coincidence. It was a decision that we made early on not to farm land that had more than a slope that would put risk to soil, and not to farm soil that was not necessarily optimal for the crop, but to actually, in recognition of the ecosystem services that we needed from the landscape, preserve some of it for water, erosion control, pollination, and so many other aspects that these operations vitally depend on. With that kind of knowledge, I started building from the ground, and it was a win-win situation for the organization. There was immediate understanding of how this could be built into a larger role, and here we are.
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John Shegerian12:12
Climate change and consumption. Talk a little bit about those two competing factors. What is the effect of climate change on many of your core products that you deliver around the world? And is there rising consumption? Let's just take two of your products, pineapples and bananas. Is there rising consumption, and then a worry that climate change is eroding the production opportunities for these great products that you produce for the 80 or so countries around the world?
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Hans Sauter12:46
As with many other crops, climate change is definitely having an impact as we speak. Our operations rely heavily on research teams and technical expertise, so we are compensating to make sure that those impacts are lessened, but no question, the conditions are becoming tougher and require more inputs to be able to provide the same amount of food.
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John Shegerian13:36
Let's talk a little bit about Tropical Race 4, TR4. What does that mean with regards to the banana industry and the impact that climate change is just having on it? What does that mean at Fresh Del Monte?
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Hans Sauter13:50
We have a direct exposure to TR4 in our operations in the Philippines, and that has given us the opportunity to learn about the disease firsthand. It's nothing you can take lightly. It has demonstrated a remarkable ability to spread across continents. It has made it to the Americas already. Both Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru have already officially declared that they have TR4, and they're trying to keep it under control. However, without an effective treatment, this disease remains in the soil for decades, and farms literally become unsustainable after a few years.
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John Shegerian15:02
What exactly is it, Hans?
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Hans Sauter15:04
It's a fungus that is resilient to very tough conditions and can survive in the soil in the form of spores even without cultivation of the crop.
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John Shegerian15:21
How is Fresh Del Monte taking steps to mitigate this disease and to ensure the supply of bananas now and in the future?
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Hans Sauter15:36
We're not taking it lightly, and we have invested in developing and collaborating with other organizations to come up with a resistant variety. We have already made the arrangements to have exclusive rights over a variety that was developed by the Queensland University of Technology. That's a first step in the process. We will be testing that variety in the Philippines in the near future, and of course, we'll have to build on top of that.
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John Shegerian16:27
When it comes to pineapples, talk a little bit about pineapples and innovation. Just like you're innovating with bananas, how does pineapple innovation also keep you ahead of the challenges that all producers and all farmers around the world are facing today because of climate change and because of funguses and other crises?
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Hans Sauter16:49
Pineapples are our flagship product, and we have commanded the leadership of that market already for decades. We feel especially proud and privileged of having the know-how to be able to address evolving consumer preferences. We have innovated in the sector several times, not only with that Del Monte Gold variety that was released 25 years ago, but we did it again four years ago with a Pink Glow. It's a pink pineapple. It's a GMO that was bioengineered to accumulate lycopene. In the process, I addressed consumer interest for innovation, and it's been a tremendous success. We continue building on those successful stories. Now we're releasing the Ruby Glow, which is a red pineapple. This was developed with traditional breeding techniques by moving pollen to the flower, and it took a long time, but it's addressing another sector of the market. And the Honey Glow and the Precious Honey Glow are basically twists on the way we produce at the farm. Overall, we feel like the baker and the brewer that have this craftsmanship, and that's part of our passion.
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John Shegerian19:11
When will we be able to buy pink or red pineapples? I'm interested now that you said that. I love your regular pineapples. I'm now interested in your pink and your red pineapples.
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Hans Sauter19:22
You can get the Pink Glow in the United States. You would need to go to our website to find out specifically in what location, California, but it's available, and you can even order it via e-commerce.
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John Shegerian19:44
Wonderful. That's just wonderful. For our listeners and viewers who've just joined us, we've got Hans Sauter with us today. He's the Senior Vice President of R&D and Agricultural Services and Chief Sustainability Officer at Fresh Del Monte. Find Hans and all his great colleagues and all the important work they're doing in sustainability at Fresh Del Monte. Please go to www.freshdelmonte.com. Hans, every year you put out a sustainability report.
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Hans Sauter20:10
Yes, and that lives in perpetuity on the Fresh Del Monte website. You can find all of the ones we have published for the last five years.
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John Shegerian20:25
So you've been in the position now coming on about five years. Talk a little bit about some of your favorite one or two wins in the last five years, and what are you looking forward to most in the next five years ahead?
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Hans Sauter20:40
We're very proud of our success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our supply chain. We initially committed to the Science Based Targets initiative with a target of reducing 27.5% of our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. We are proud to report that we were just about to reach that goal. You can read about that in our last year's report, but this year we'll bring some more good news.
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John Shegerian21:31
Regenerative agriculture, that's a buzz terminology in the agricultural world. How much do you leverage regenerative agriculture to help you with your continued needs of ongoing good crops to fuel the demand that you have for your great products?
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Hans Sauter21:53
As a scientist, my approach to sustainability is always based on the facts. Bringing regenerative agriculture to tropical crops takes a lot of scientific research. Temperate crops, row crops have benefited from years and years of university research in northern regions. Tropical crops have not received that benefit. As we speak, we're engaged in multiple projects to demonstrate to our own operations and farmers those benefits in bananas and pineapples, anything from cover crops, addition of compost, and soil health. The best way of moving sustainability forward is always on facts, and if we can demonstrate that there is a win-win on a particular agricultural practice, growers will take up those practices.
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John Shegerian23:31
AI is the new buzzword in technology. How much do you lean on technology to do predictive analytics on climate in the areas that you grow your crops around the world, and is it going to be a part of the future of good agricultural practice and procedure when it comes to sustainable farming?
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Hans Sauter23:57
As in every other field, there is a place for AI, no question. There are so many decisions to be taken in an agricultural setting at the farm level. Probably one of the most difficult roles for a farm manager is this decision-making. It used to be based on standard operating procedures, but now that we're trying to be more precise, go to the acre or even square foot level to save on inputs and reduce impact, those decisions become more relevant but also need to be taken timely. They cannot be postmortem decisions. I definitely see a place for AI to help sort out irrelevant information and flag the information that really requires the manager's attention and a decision on it.
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John Shegerian25:29
You know, Hans, when you're sitting at a very large company with 80 countries or more that you serve, over 49,000 employees, and billions in revenue, when you look to benchmark your sustainability efforts, do you look to just your counterparts within your industry and your competitors, or do you look outside of your industry for inspiration and aspiration?
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Hans Sauter25:58
All over, John. All over. The challenges that we're facing go beyond our industry, and sometimes we are having to break new ground. It's also part of our vision to lead the industry towards a transition that has more nature-positive outcomes, and that requires conversations with people from every walk and from different sectors.
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John Shegerian26:34
You know, Hans, you're obviously a global citizen. You grew up in Costa Rica, you now live in the United States, you have operations around the world. How much of your time is spent in the office in the United States? How much of your time is spent literally on the farms and checking in with your operations around the world? How much of your time do you have to spend on the road?
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Hans Sauter26:59
Half and half. And only because nowadays we have the luxury of communicating this way where we can see and feel, especially if you have been in the operations so much time before. But yeah, it's always on the road. Nothing beats in-person contact and eyeballing it in person.
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John Shegerian27:34
Nothing does. Well, Hans, your journey, as you and I know, sustainability doesn't have a finish line. It's a journey. I just want to thank you for your time today, for sharing some of your thoughts and wisdom and all the great work that you're doing at Fresh Del Monte in sustainability. I want you to know you're always invited back on the Impact Podcast. For our listeners and viewers to find Hans and his colleagues at Fresh Del Monte, please go to www.freshdelmonte.com. You are the gold standard of goodness, Hans. Thank you and all your colleagues at Fresh Del Monte for making the world a better place.
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Hans Sauter28:12
Thank you, John. Pleasure talking to you.
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Narrator28:16
This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the talent booking industry with thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent for speeches, custom experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit letsengage.com. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States, and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.