Dümmen Orange significantly reduces CO2 emissions

With a new, smarter approach to supply chain management, Dümmen Orange made significant savings on the amount of air freight kilometres, and thus on CO2 emissions. By bringing production and sales markets closer together, far fewer air kilometres were needed to bring the company's cuttings to customers.

In 2020, Dümmen Orange started the so-called Footprint Project, a major operation unmatched in the flower industry, with an aim to optimize the company's supply chain and significantly reduce the ecological impact of air transport.

Benjamin Goepferich, Regional Direction Africa, explains: ‘The starting point of our Footprint Project is that we simplify and shorten air freight routes. In 2020 we started to move some of our mother plants from Central America to Africa. The main part of the operation was the transfer a production volume of approximately 57 million cuttings from El Salvador and Guatemala to Kenya. Additionally, some mother plants were relocated from Tanzania to Guatemala. We now serve large groups of customers in North America from our farms in Central America, and customers in Europe from our farms in Africa. By doing so, we were able to significantly reduce the number of long, more environmentally damaging routes across the ocean from Africa to America and from Central America to Europe.’

Quality gains

Each crop moved from Central America to Africa saves about 3,000 kilometres per flight to Europe. For crops that have been moved from Africa to Central America, the saving is no less than 11,000 kilometres per flight. Benjamin Goepferich: ‘We have received the data from the last production season, which has just ended. From Kenya we have supplied almost 25 million cuttings to Europe that previously came from Central America. That's about 37 tons... the weight of more than ten female African elephants. An impressive number, especially when you consider how small and light our cuttings are.'

Shorter air transport lines save weight of more than 10 elephants in cargo (photo: Chris Stenger)

In addition to environmental benefits, the Footprint Project also yields quality gains. Benjamin Goepferich: 'Shorter and simpler transport routes, without intermediate transshipment at airports, enable us to better manage the cold chain. And that benefits the quality of our products.”

Initial situation (left) and result 'Footprint Project' (right)

About Dümmen Orange

Dümmen Orange is a global leader in breeding and propagation of cut flowers, pot plants, bedding plants, perennials, tropical plants and bulbs. Its annual turnover is about 390 million euro. The company employs 7.500 people worldwide. In addition to a large marketing and sales network, Dümmen Orange has a diversified network of specialized production sites and a world class R&D team developing innovative, value-added products for customers. Researchers and breeders collaborate to improve crop characteristics, like flower colour, fragrance and growth habit, but also less visible traits such as disease resistance, yield performance and vase or shelf life. Dümmen Orange develops products for a wide range of categories in the floriculture business and has an impressive variety portfolio.

Image by serhii_bobyk on Freepik