Fashion, Design & Beauty

Dole Sunshine Company, World’s Largest Producer of Fruit & Veg, Partners With Ananas Anam to Upcycle Pineapple Waste

The Dole Sunshine Company – the world’s largest producer of fruit and vegetables – this week announced its partnership with Ananas Anam, the London-based creators of Piñatex, a vegan leather made from sustainably sourced pineapple leaf fibres. The collaboration is part of Dole’s commitment to achieve zero fruit loss by 2025.

Ananas Anam is a B-Corp™ certified company responsible for developing innovative plant-based textiles disrupting the world of fashion materials and leading the way in sustainability. Its pineapple leather product Piñatex has been used by global lifestyle brands including Nike, Hugo Boss, H&M, Paul Smith and the Hilton Hotel London Bankside for the world’s first vegan suite.

Through this partnership, Ananas Anam will produce Piñatex from fiber extracted from Dole’s harvested pineapple plant leaves, which when dried and processed create a non-woven mesh to form the base of the sustainable material. See the partnership video here.

Ananas Anam plantation
©Ananas Anam

“At Dole, we believe purpose – and therefore our Promise – must permeate everything we do to address these global challenges head on.  Addressing food waste is absolutely important to us, as it is connected to our business and our lives in so many ways,” said Pier-Luigi Sigismondi, global president, Dole Sunshine Company. “I believe to create tangible solutions and real systemic change to address this issue, we need to converge our purpose with creativity, innovation, and technology. Our partnership with Ananas Anam coupled with global lifestyle brands’ use of this innovation truly bring this convergence to life in a new way.”

“At Ananas Anam, we aim at meeting the challenges of our times by developing innovative products in which commercial success is integrated with, and promotes, social, ecological and cultural development. By connecting on a deep level with the people we work with, we build ecosystems that are bound together, symbiotically grow together in order to bring about positive changes into the world”, said Dr Carmen Hijosa, Founder and Chief Creative & Innovation Officer at Ananas Anam.

Ananas Anam Piñatex
©Ananas Anam

“Through our partnership with Dole, our entity in the Philippines will access a much larger volume of pineapple leaf fibres, to meet the ever-increasing demand for Piñatex® not only in fashion, but also in the upholstery and automotive sectors. Working closely with Dole’s teams on the ground will help us to create a wider positive social impact among farming communities and to continuously reduce our environmental footprint by valorising waste at scale”, said Melanie Broye-Engelkes, CEO of Ananas Anam.

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