We regularly hold awareness-raising and training sessions for our suppliers, creating complementary engagement opportunities alongside the visits and audits we carry out throughout the year. These initiatives aim to strengthen the preparedness of our supply chain, making it more resilient and aligned with the practices and expectations of our Companies. These are sessions for sharing best practices and common goals that enable opportunities for improving products and processes to be identified.
As in previous years, in 2025 we held several training sessions covering topics such as food safety and food defence, animal welfare, social and environmental aspects of the supply chain, carbon footprint, packaging ecodesign, the responsible use of pesticides, cultivation techniques and biopesticides, fighting deforestation and related EU regulations, water management, and sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
More than 5,200 representatives from perishables and Private Brand suppliers participated in the sessions that are held throughout the year in Colombia, Slovakia, Poland and Portugal.
Promoting sustainable agriculture
Food distribution, which accounts for more than 98% of our global turnover, relies heavily on agricultural activities, particularly productivity and cultivation practices. The integration of sustainability principles, including regenerative agriculture practices, enhances the resilience of productive areas, reduces environmental impacts, such as soil pollution, and helps preserve ecosystem services, such as pollination.
It was with this vision in mind that we created a sustainable agriculture programme for our fruit, vegetable and flower suppliers in Portugal. This programme includes training initiatives and free access to our Sustainable Agriculture Handbook. Aligned with the principles of the European “Farm to Fork Strategy”, the handbook shares good practices in land use, biodiversity preservation, water and energy efficiency, and the proper use of fertilisers and phytopharmaceuticals. It also helps farmers to calculate the sustainability index of their farms and identify opportunities for improvement over time.
In 2025, we evaluated 28 farms in Portugal (14 new assessments and 14 re-assessments). The average sustainability index of the new farms was 3.69 (on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is the maximum score). The farms that were reassessed showed a slight improvement, with the average index rising from 3.87 to 3.89.
Experience shows that the best performance is linked to waste management and crop practices, while energy management and consumption offer the greatest potential for improvement. Since the launch of project, we have involved 217 farms from 110 suppliers, representing around 60% of our Companies’ total fruit, vegetable and flower purchases in Portugal. Our goal is to assess at least 60 farms in Portugal over the 2024-2026 period. By the end of 2025, we had already assessed 56 farms.
We also encourage our suppliers to adopt certification systems that ensure sustainable agricultural practices, such as Global G.A.P.. In 2025, more than 95% of the fruit and vegetable products were purchased from suppliers with a Global G.A.P. certification. Efforts are currently underway to ensure certification for all fruit and vegetable products marketed in Poland and Slovakia by the end of 2026.