For our dried mango, on the other hand, we have chosen to rely on HPW, which every day in Ghana is committed to improving the living and working conditions of the approximately 1000 employees working in the production plant. HPW is very important for the country’s economy: in 2011 it has built the largest production plant for dried fruit in the west of Africa, creating jobs, supporting local producers, and financing local projects such as the construction of wells, schools, canteens and facilities for the workers such as a nursery where the employees can leave their children during working hours. Every worker is entitled to 2 meals a day, transport to and from the plant, and health insurance, all offered by the company. The production plants mainly use renewable energy sources: indeed, in addition to solar energy, the company has a biogas plant in which organic and production waste are burned to generate electricity and heat used in the operation of the plant.

http://www.hpwag.ch/en/sustainability/

Walter Scott, the Scottish writer and poet once remarked, “It is wonderful what strength of purpose and boldness and energy of will are roused by the assurance that we are doing our duty“.

These words gave inspiration to the members of Ciavolino Daniele e Figli Napoli Srl, a company founded in 1950 when grandfather Daniele, with great passion and dedication, set up his business in Torre del Greco to harvest and process pine cones in the area around Mount Vesuvius. Today the business is run by his grandchildren, Daniele Santo and Luana, and boasts consolidated experience in buying pine cones and processing them to obtain pine nuts.

The pine nut is the seed of the domestic pine (Pinus Pinea), an iconic tree of the Italian landscape, so much so that it is known in the English-speaking world as the Italian Stone Pine. Of great longevity, which can be up to centuries old, the pine begins to produce seeds only after about 15 years and each plant produces only about 1kg of pine nuts per season, which is why pine nuts are among the most expensive nuts on the market.

In the past, the harvesting of pine cones was a difficult and very dangerous operation as the pickers actually used to climb up the pine trees using hooks on their feet, ropes and harnesses. Today the harvest is still done manually but mainly with the aid of mechanical elevators. There are still some businesses where it is still possible to observe and take part in the traditional harvest as a way of keeping alive the memory of a craft, that of the pine nut harvester, which has touched the lives of many generations.

After harvesting, the processing involves the extraction of pine nuts from the pine cone, shelling and sorting. The pine cones are heated so that they soften and to encourage them to open up, which then makes it possible to separate the pine cone from the pine nuts in their shells. It is interesting to note that some companies use the woody part of production waste to feed their heaters or sell it as biomass for energy production.

For our natural dried apricots, with their characteristic dark colour, we have chosen Turkey and more specifically the Malatya region. Indeed, this region is the best area, where the varieties of fruit most suitable for drying grow. Here we work with Gabay, a company that, in the heart of Turkey, grows and sun-dries a particular variety of apricots with a firm texture and low acidity. The peculiar characteristics of the fruit, combined with a hot and dry climate, an altitude of 900 meters and an important temperature change between day and night, create the right conditions to obtain the best dried product. The city of Malatya lives mainly on agriculture, and apricot orchards play a fundamental role in the country’s economy. The importance of apricots is also underlined by various monuments and references to the fruit that can be found along the roads of the chief town.

In 2011, HPW built west Africa’s largest dried fruit production plant in Ghana with excellent levels of Quality Assurance. In Ghana, HPW strives every day to improve the working and living conditions of all its workers and has considerable influence on the country’s economy. Currently, near a thousand workers at the plant are provided with two meals a day, transport to and from work, and health insurance. In addition to job creation inside a business structure that is stable, reliable, and able to guarantee families financial security and stability, the company is constantly carrying out local projects such as the construction of wells, schools, canteens and facilities for the workers such as a nursery where the employees can leave their children during working hours. HPW actively supports local producers certified by Fairtrade who supply the company with fresh fruit that is then processed in plants using mainly renewable energy sources. In addition to solar energy, a biogas plant fuelled by organic and production waste is used to generate electricity and heat for the plant.