Sustainability Snippets: PepsiCo entrepreneurial collaboration, RedMart on e-commerce trends, APAC insect-based foods and more feature in our round-up

Powered potatoes: PepsiCo pushes entrepreneurial collaboration as ‘vital’ APAC sustainability strategy​

PepsiCo has highlighted collaborations with entrepreneurs as a ‘vital’ part of its strategy to achieve sustainable operations in the APAC region, amid the crowning of its regional Greenhouse Accelerator champion.

As part of PepsiCo’s overarching transformation strategy pep+ launched in September 2021 and to meet its three major pillars of Positive Agriculture, Positive Value Chain and Positive Choices, it launched a series of sustainability-focused accelerator programmes globally over the past several years, from North America to the Middle East.

According to the firm, these initiatives have been an important part of its strategy to find ‘groundbreaking’ solutions for sustainable packaging and other impactful climate actions, with a lot of innovation from here being cultivated in the start-up scene.

E-commerce conversion: Singapore consumers’ purchasing decisions increasingly driven by health and sustainability – RedMart​

Grocery e-commerce platform giant RedMart is seeing health and sustainability trends increasingly driving the purchasing decisions of consumers in Singapore, inspiring the firm to focus its own in-house product innovations on these factors.

RedMart is the grocery arm of Lazada, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Asia, and this grocery arm has a particularly strong foothold in Singapore where it has established its own in-house delivery fleet as well as a dedicated fulfilment centre to ensure smooth logistics.

E-commerce as a whole saw a major boom in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic – but this also brought with it increased sustainability concerns due to the added packaging needed for logistical purposes.

‘Super cheap’: Affordability trumps protein and sustainability as main driving factor for insect-based foods in APAC​

Affordability is emerging as the main driving factor for insect-based foods in the APAC region, possibly even more significant than its often-lauded protein or sustainability factors.

This is the opinion of Vietnam-based insect protein firm FlyFeed’s Founder and CEO Arseniy Olkhovskiy, who believes that food and beverage manufacturers can address consumer demands for high-quality protein with their pricing priorities by using insect protein.

“The biggest advantage that insect proteins have to become part of the food supply chain is the ability for this to be produced at super cheap costs,”​ he told FoodNavigator-Asia​ during the most recent episode of our Food and Beverage Trailblazers podcast.

Big Food likely to miss plastic targets, while ‘large part’ of industry yet to take action​

Although efforts show progress on plastic pollution is possible, the world is ‘not on course’ to eliminating plastic waste and pollution, stresses the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Five years on from the launch of the Global Commitment, developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) and UN Environment, progress has been made. But not enough, according to the latest progress report.

Strengthening food security in the Middle East: Strategies for success on the road to self sufficiency – In-depth analysis​

Governments across the Middle East are ploughing in resources to increase food security and strengthen self-sufficiency, but where are the best opportunities for success, and how can considerable obstacles be overcome?

The importance of food security has taken centre stage since the pandemic when supply chains to the region, which relies heavily on imports, were severely strained.

This was further exacerbated by the Russia – Ukraine conflict, again in terms of supplies, but also in relation to soaring costs.