Fruta Feia or Ugly Fruit finds beauty in misshaped fruit
Organisation or Company
Type of organisation or company
Country
Portugal
Language for original content
Key Area
Sector
Scope
Submitted by
Technopolis
Ongoing
Yes
Description
Since 2013, the cooperative Fruta Feia (“ugly fruit” in Portuguese) has been preventing the waste of so-called “ugly” fruit in Portugal. This refers to fruit (and vegetables) that are not usually sold in markets because their colour, shape or size does not meet perceived customer preferences. As a result, farmers cannot sell the produce and it goes to waste.
The cooperative's strategy is to buy directly from local farmers all fruit and vegetables that were not bought by supermarkets. As a next step, the fruits are distributed to delivery points throughout Portugal, where they are sold directly to consumers.
Main activity field
Main results
- Every week, each delivery point has an average of 300 consumers and saves around 1,5 tonnes of fruit and vegetables from being wasted.
- To date, the initiative works with 275 producers, 12 delivery points and 6 530 consumers.
- The initiative estimates that it has prevented a total of 2 725 tonnes of food from being wasted.