Tholen – After all the fresh dairy and unprocessed potatoes, PLUS now replaces the unprocessed onions as standard for the organic variant. Customers continue to pay the same price, growers receive the additional price that is appropriate for organic. PLUS covers the price difference. At PLUS Koot in Abcoude, category manager Cas Cornet, together with grower Joost Jonk, from Twisk van Andel Organics (TVA Organics), explained the how and why of this step.
Joshua Hurkmans (SuperUnie), Esther van Northousen (PLUS), Cas Cornet (PLUS), Joost Jonk (TVA Organics), Rinze Anne van der Sluis (Bio Brass)
Phases
Replacing the entire unprocessed onion range to fully organic will take place in phases. The unprocessed yellow and red onions in 3-piece packaging are now available in all PLUS stores. The Dutch organic yellow onions in a 3-piece package cost €1.19 and the red onions €1.49.
The onions in one and two kilo packages will follow later, as will the shallots. This year an estimated 2.5 million kilos of onions will be replaced, in the long term this will amount to 5 million kilos. PLUS takes two years to do this. By gradually converting unprocessed onions to organic, growers have time to expand their volume of organic onions.
Relieving customer worries
PLUS has been taking sustainable steps since 2010. For two years now, they have chosen to make more impact by replacing entire product groups while keeping the price the same as that of regular products. This is the most important message in communication with consumers, said Elise van Ee, sustainability advisor at PLUS. “We want to include the customer in the sustainable transition, but do not place this responsibility on the customer. Customers are unburdened, are automatically included in this strategy and thus make it easier to make a more sustainable choice.” Examples are standard Fairtrade bananas, standard organic for all daily fresh private label dairy and unprocessed potatoes. Organic onions are the last step in this list, PLUS hopes to be able to take another step in November. PLUS’s aim is for the organic turnover share to be 5 percent by 2025. Elise van Ee indicates that the current share is approximately 3.5 percent.
Year-round from the Netherlands
The replacement strategy is a close collaboration between TVA Organics, Bio Brass, SuperUnie and PLUS supermarkets. Growers receive a good price for their product, says Joost Jonk of TVA. The collaboration with PLUS gives them long-term security. “Our sales are partly dependent on exports, which creates a lot of dynamism. Each country has a strong bond with local, which is logical, our own product comes first. This is a nice step towards more stability. We have invested heavily in storage technology so that we can now supply onions from Dutch soil to PLUS all year round,” said Joost.
New packaging
TVA has also invested in a packaging machine so that they can pack per 3 pieces. The packaging was also made more sustainable during its introduction. It now consists of mono-material, both the label and the net are made of plastic, making it easier to recycle. The metal clip is gone because the ends of the package are now fused.
The net around the organic onions is orange and not green as is usual with organic onions. PLUS has chosen to package the ‘replacement’ organic onions in the same color as the regular onions. “We don’t want to make it special,” Cas Cornet explained. The label does indicate that these are organic onions and there is also a NL flag on it to make it clear that these are Dutch organic onions.
PLUS matches the price difference
The replacement of regular for organic should not create a barrier for the customer to purchase the products. That is why PLUS makes up the price difference. Elise van Ee emphasizes that it is deducted from the profit figures, but they do not disclose how much PLUS itself invests in this step.
Organic only
Based on previous experiences with replacing the regular 1 kg potato range with the organic variant, category manager Cas is confident that onion sales will remain at the same level. “We look back on that very positively. Consumers are price-conscious, especially when buying potatoes. But consumers easily went along with it, we even had a peak in sales,” he says. According to him, the replacement strategy is the way to grow the organic share in fresh produce. Organic becomes the new normal. Cas points out that this is also the case in the fresh produce department with dried legumes and fresh nuts. He aims to further increase the organic-only share of fresh produce where possible. It is not known what the next step will be. He does make it clear that it will not concern the fruit vegetable category. The volumes involved cannot be guaranteed in terms of availability, according to the category manager.
