Divine Flavor grower and parent company, Grupo Alta will begin auditing their production facilities starting next month. Coordinating and preparing the processes is Raul Diaz, Manager of Continuous Improvement for the company.
“We are already a very sustainable company,” says Diaz. “Our packing houses are powered by the energy generated from the solar panels installed at the production facilities. We’ve reduced our water usage significantly by installing drip irrigation, as well as improving our soils from the crop rotation and organic production.”
“By growing more organic product, our soils are less affected by synthetic chemicals such as pesticides and insecticides which are commonly used on conventional product”.
Raul Diaz explains as of now, most of the production from the Grupo Alta/Divine Flavor ranches are organic, which is a major contribution to protecting the soil and being sustainable.
“As growers, it is our responsibility to provide our consumers environmentally friendly products while preserving water and carefully managing the soils the produce is grown in,” Diaz said.
When asked about the progress their company is making, Diaz replied, “right now, we’re on the road to perusing better sustainable agriculture. We’re changing all of our processes to be more environmental and introducing tools to help us keep track of our practices more carefully,” Diaz said.
He continued to mention the company’s eagerness of working with a certification body such as Rainforest Alliance. “Having a recognizable auditing company is important to validating our processes, proving what we say, we actually do. It will require us to think about the environment and how to continuously protect it,” Diaz said.
“The most important factors are determining the sustainable areas we already have and how to properly document and evaluate it,” Diaz said when asked about how to prepare for the company’s sustainability audits.
The company already implements many ecological practices such as green areas for the workers, waste management systems, but Diaz explains the reasoning is fueled by a bigger picture. “Sustainable agriculture is more than growing an environmentally friendly products for the consumer, but also, it’s for us to be an example to the industry and help restore the earth’s natural resources by validating the process with a certification.”
For more information, please contact:
Michael DuPuis
Public Relation Coordinator, Divine Flavor, LLC
+1 (520)-281-8328
mdupuis@divineflavor.com
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