Fyffes Sets 2035 Targets for Women in Leadership and Sustainable Farming
Fyffes has launched a sustainability strategy running to 2035, with a new focus on women’s progression into agricultural leadership. The tropical fruit company aims to achieve gender parity in senior leadership and at least 30% female representation in operational supervisory roles across its own business by 2035. The strategy also covers climate action, regenerative agriculture, packaging, food loss, human rights and community wellbeing.
The leadership targets extend Fyffes’ existing gender equality work from training and workplace programmes to representation in management. They apply to the company’s own operations, rather than setting a representation target for independently owned suppliers. Fyffes has not published a starting figure for either leadership measure alongside the announcement, so future reports will need to show how far representation changes from the current position.
Fyffes previously set a target for all its Latin American sites to benefit from gender equality programmes by the end of 2025, and for half its suppliers to do so by 2030. Its 2023–24 sustainability report said programmes covered 100% of its Latin American sites and had trained more than 9,000 people. At the time of that report, however, only 4% of suppliers benefited from such programmes. Extending participation through the supplier network remains a substantial task.
Training coverage and leadership representation measure different things. Training can establish a foundation for fairer workplaces, but progress towards the 2035 targets will depend on whether women are hired, retained and promoted into supervisory and senior roles. Publishing the proportion of women at each level, alongside the overall workforce figures, would make the new commitments easier to assess.
For growers and produce buyers, the distinction between company sites and suppliers matters. Fyffes can directly change recruitment, promotion and training practices in its own business. Progress among independent growers depends on their participation and on the support available to put programmes into practice. Reporting both groups separately would show whether the strategy is improving opportunities throughout the supply chain.
Environmental Commitments Across Fruit Production
Alongside its social targets, Fyffes says it has submitted new absolute greenhouse gas reduction targets covering its operations and supply chain to the Science Based Targets initiative. Submission is a step in the target-setting process; it does not mean the new targets have been validated. Absolute targets will also need to be assessed separately from the emissions intensity measures used in Fyffes’ earlier strategy, which tracked emissions relative to the quantity of fruit handled.
Fyffes says its Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity fell by 46% between 2020 and 2025. That reported reduction provides context for the new plan, but an intensity improvement does not, by itself, establish that total emissions fell by the same percentage. For customers assessing the climate impact of the fruit they purchase, the next useful disclosures will be the proposed absolute targets, their baseline and progress across the supply chain.
The strategy also calls for regenerative agriculture practices across 13,000 hectares of banana and pineapple production by 2035. Fyffes has separately published a framework focused on soil health, biodiversity, water management and reduced dependence on agrochemicals. It says the framework will use measurement and verification to track results. That detail matters because the area enrolled in a programme shows its reach, while changes in soil, water use and other outcomes show what the practices achieve.
Climate resilience is a practical concern for fruit producers as well as an environmental goal. Fyffes’ 2023–24 report describes a climate risk assessment that identified pressures on its growing regions, including heavier rainfall, heat, storms, pests and fungal outbreaks. Measures that improve soil condition and water management could help farms respond to some of these pressures. Their effectiveness will depend on local conditions and measured results, rather than the adoption of a single farming label.
Other commitments address materials and waste. Fyffes aims to cut plastic packaging by 40% and overall single-use packaging materials by 10% by 2030. It also plans to reduce food loss across its banana and pineapple supply chain by 70,000 tonnes by 2035, while finding uses for unavoidable surplus fruit. The announcement does not specify the baseline for these reductions; publishing it will be necessary to judge progress consistently over time.
What Stakeholders Can Track
Fyffes’ wider strategy aims to improve wellbeing for 50 million people across its supply chain by 2035. It also sets a goal for independent human rights and environmental impact assessments to cover all Fyffes-owned farms and high-risk suppliers by 2028, with time-bound action plans where risks are found. These measures could give retailers and other buyers more information about conditions behind the fruit they source, provided Fyffes reports the coverage, findings and follow-up actions clearly.
The strategy brings workforce, environmental and supply chain goals into one framework. Its practical test will be the evidence Fyffes publishes as the deadlines approach: women’s representation at each management level, supplier participation in gender programmes, absolute emissions, measured farming outcomes, and reductions in packaging and food loss. Those figures will allow growers, workers and customers to distinguish commitments from results.
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