Every year 30% of the fruit produced in Portugal is wasted and put aside by the chains of great distribution and by consumers themselves, not due to their quality, but because it does not have the color, the size, and the ideal format.
To fight this waste, the consumer cooperative Fruta Feia, emerges in 2013. With 11 delivery points covering the metropolitan areas of Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, this cooperative intends, every week, to prevent about 15 tons of fruits and vegetables from going to waste.
Every week the cooperative works directly with the producers of the region, choosing their gardens to buy small, large or ugly shaped fruits and vegetables that they cannot sell. They prepare two baskets of different sizes to sell to consumers who care about the quality and flavor of the products and not with the appearance. With this, Fruta Feia aims to create a movement that can change consumption patterns and generate a market for the so-called “ugly fruit”. This market generates value and fights both food waste and unnecessary expenditure of the resources used in its production (water, energy and agricultural land).
Since its creation, Fruta Feia has already managed to reach more than 5000 consumers, 232 producers and, mainly, avoid the waste of almost 2,000 tons of tasty fruits and vegetables.