Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd Modern Slavery Statement for Financial Year 2024
(Covering the period from 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024)
INTRODUCTION
This Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd Modern Slavery Statement confirms that we meet the threshold requirements for corporate reporting under the Modern Slavery Act (2015). Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd is incorporated in the UK, supplies goods and services, and has an annual turnover that exceeds £36 million.
This Statement is our commitment to ensuring that modern slavery and human trafficking are not occurring in our core operations or supply chains and provides the details required by the Modern Slavery Act (2015).
ABOUT WESTFALIA FRUIT UK LTD
Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd is part of the Westfalia Fruit Group, which in turn is part of Hans Merensky Holdings. The Westfalia Fruit Group is recognised as being a global leader in growing fresh avocados. Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd sources, ripens, packs and delivers fresh produce from all over the world to supermarkets and wholesale markets across the UK and Europe.
COMMITMENT
The Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd Board of Directors and UK Senior Management Team accept our responsibility for uncovering, preventing, and eradicating modern slavery and hidden labour exploitation in both our own operations and global supply chains as defined in Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act (2015).
SUPPLY CHAINS
Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd has built long-term relationships with suppliers worldwide. We utilise global supply chains with a primary focus on the UK, Europe, Africa and South America. All of our products are sourced from approved, nominated suppliers who have passed a supplier approval verification process and have achieved our ethical requirements. This includes third party ethical accreditation.
OUR APPROACH
Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd are committed to transparency and collaboration in our efforts to mitigate modern slavery. We build our modern slavery programme using a range of tools that include policy, due diligence, collaborative programmes, training and dedicated subject matter expertise.
POLICIES
Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd policies reflect our commitment to ethical business activities in the broadest sense and also specifically address modern slavery and human trafficking. During the reporting period we have resourced additional Policy expertise and have reviewed our broad suite of relevant policies. We will produce a more linear approach to cover the scope of our existing positions described in our: Ethical Trading Policy, Human Rights Policy, Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy, Whistleblowing policy, Preventing Hidden Labour Exploitation Policy, Policy on Forced Labour, Responsible Recruitment Policy, Child Labour Policy, Positive Work Policy, and Grievance Procedure.
ASSESSING AND MANAGING RISK
Our human rights due diligence framework is built on a risk assessment aligned with the Food Network for Ethical Trade (FNET) methodology enhanced with an additional materiality perspective provided by commercial and operational data.
The risk assessment for the reporting period allowed us to focus on engagement with our fruit suppliers from medium and high-risk country sources, using third party ethical accreditation, second party assessments and in-country inspections from our team of Subject Matter Experts resident in a range of sourcing countries.
DUE DILIGENCE AND REMEDIATION
Due Diligence is built around audit data from our supply chains – primarily SMETA, Rainforest Alliance and GlobalGAP GRASP. Our growers and international sources share their data with us prior to supply and our Subject Matter Experts review their status. Actions and investigations are initiated where we see areas of significant concern for Modern Slavery, exploitation or human rights breaches. This data is a condition of supply for Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd and covers 100% of our fruit supply chains through to individual grower level.
We are aware of the potential for human rights issues to arise in supply chains where audit activity has taken place and utilise a “Beyond Due Diligence” model in collaboration with other stakeholders that has been operational throughout the financial year. Our expert colleagues conduct detailed investigations and feedback findings to relevant business partners and multistakeholder initiatives. This includes law enforcement teams or statutory bodies when relevant.
As members of the Ethical Trading Initiative and the Food Network for Ethical Trade we are able access a range of resources and approaches to the topic of remediation. Our approach will be managed on a case by case basis and informed by the ETI “Access to Remedy” framework which is in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and was developed with reference to the tripartite input of business, non-governmental organisations and trade unions.
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd are members of several multi-stakeholder initiatives that help us to achieve our goals in combating modern slavery. We are aware that this crime cannot be addressed in isolation by any single business and therefore contribute actively to these programmes with the intention of driving best practice across the industry in which we operate.
During the reporting period Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd were members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX), Association of Labour Providers (ALP), Stronger Together, Sustainability Initiative of South Africa (SIZA) the Spanish Ethical Trade Forum, the Egypt Ethical Trade Forum, third party worker voice programmes, and Board Members of the Food Network for Ethical Trade (FNET). We share information and collaborate with the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN) and have collaborated with the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) regarding exploitation risks in global logistics.
This reporting year has seen greater engagement with some of our key commercial stakeholders. We are pleased to report that Modern Slavery and exploitation indicators have been built into detailed commercial relationships.
Cross-functional alignment is a prerequisite of developing a business-wide approach to combatting Modern Slavery. During 2024 we have expanded our approach to include a greater range of internal stakeholders including those functions focused on people, risk, governance, operations, procurement and commercial success.
TRAINING
All employees at Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd receive modern slavery awareness training. Our management team are able to access specific e-learning courses on modern slavery. The UK labour providers that we partner with are members of the Association of Labour Providers (ALP), completing Stronger Together Modern Slavery training, and educating all temporary workers regarding Modern Slavery risks during the registration process.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE
As a bedrock of our commitment to disrupting Modern Slavery, we resource a dedicated human rights team under the umbrella of Corporate Social Responsibility. This team of international experts is based in a range of locations (Africa, South America, Europe) and has a diverse set of skills focused on modern slavery and human rights engagement. They work both within our own operations and our supply chains to provide specialist support and engagement.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Our Human Rights KPIs are modelled on compliance with the ETI Base Code and allow us to measure the effectiveness of our programme from a broad human rights perspective.
We are aware of the inherent paradox in modern slavery reporting: That successful outcomes cannot be defined as the absence of modern slavery cases nor the presence of such cases. Absence can indicate insufficient scrutiny and lack of appropriate engagement and yet one case of modern slavery is one case too many from a moral perspective.
To this end we commit to addressing modern slavery risks, engaging with vulnerable workers and liaising with stakeholders and enforcement authorities. We acknowledge the risks inherent in our business sector and work to resolve them.
We are not aware of any modern slavery incidents within our operations or supply chains during the reporting period.
FUTURE FOCUS & CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
We will continue to invest in, and develop, the resources required for our in-country global subject matter expertise programme.
We will actively promote modern slavery and hidden labour exploitation training to our global supply chain. Westfalia Fruit ULK Ltd will continue to support “Worker Voice” programmes and support our nuanced “Beyond Compliance” programme for investigating modern slavery.
This statement has been approved by the Westfalia Fruit UK Ltd Board of Directors, on the 16 of June 2025 and is made in accordance with Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
For growers