Bayer commits to boosting fruit and vegetable consumption worldwide

Bayer is rolling out a new strategy to encourage the global populace to consume more fruits and vegetables

Accordingly, Bayer has reaffirmed its commitment to promoting increased worldwide consumption of fruits and vegetables, with the announcement of new portfolio of innovations and a business strategy for horticulture.

The strategy focuses on activities that deliver tailored solutions to the farm, advance sustainable innovations on the farm, and address value chain and consumer needs beyond the farm.

“Only a fraction of the global population comes close to consuming the daily recommended serving of fruits and vegetables,” said Inci Dannenberg, head of Global Vegetable Seeds at Bayer. “In the UN’s International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, Bayer is doubling down on its approach to enabling growers and partners to address the barriers to improving fruit and vegetable consumption in order to achieve 'Health for All, Hunger for None'.”

According to Bayer, the horticulture strategy is underpinned by its leading genetics, crop protection, and digital capabilities.

These provide growers with the tools they need for smarter, on-farm decision making, and consumers with the quality and nutrition they need to live healthy lives.

Bayer said it was working to realise a core part of its "to the farm" strategy with the largest investment in research and development in the industry to provide improved innovation in genetics, crop protection, and digital solutions.

“Through innovative, tailored solutions we are helping fruit and vegetable growers around the globe to produce marketable yields that meet the safety, quality, and nutrition standards their customers expect,” said Kamel Beliazi, Crop Strategy lead of Fruits and Vegetables at Bayer. “This is a core part of our business strategy in horticulture.”

Portfolio innovations and Field-to-Fork Horticulture strategy put digital transformation and innovation at the core of Bayer’s fruit and vegetable offerings

Within the vegetable seeds segment, Bayer is continuing to invest in ensuring its pipeline reflects not just the changing needs of growers and the value chain but of diverse consumers.

"The company is leveraging predicative consumer liking models and sensory insights from around the world at every stage of its pipeline development to deliver ground-breaking flavour while maintaining critical agronomic traits that are essential to a healthy harvest," Bayer stated.

As part of Bayer’s commitment to reaching 100 million smallholder farmers by 2030, the company is partnering with organisations to provide the tools, training, and resources smallholder farmers need to help minimise risk and grow their businesses sustainably.

With data-driven innovations at the forefront of this effort, Bayer is partnering with Rabobank to develop digital solutions for smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia. Through its Bridging the Seed Gap initiative, Fair Planet and Bayer are also providing training to help smallholders in Africa best grow hybrid vegetable seeds adapted for their local growing conditions.

In order to respond to these needs, Bayer is working from field to fork to promote market access for growers around the world by connecting them with food value chain partners and helping them adapt to meet changing consumer tastes.

Most recently, the company announced its membership in the Sustainability Initiative for Fruits and Vegetables (SIFAV), alongside other produce industry leaders. SIFAV is a cross-industry platform dedicated to scaling up collaboration and reducing the environmental footprint of fresh food.

These announcements were made at Bayer's recent event titled "It’s Crunch Time: Solving the world’s nutritional crisis through increased produce consumption", part of the company’s Future of Farming Dialogue virtual event series.

Bayer's virtual event explores how collaboration and innovations to, on, and beyond the farm can help increase produce consumption