PR90742

SINGAPORE, July 21, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-- The Dole Sunshine Company partners with Ananas Anam to turn pineapple plant

leaves into a natural textile that is driving sustainable design, furthering

its commitment to zero fruit loss by 2025

The Dole Sunshine Company today announced its partnership with Ananas Anam, the

London-based company behind Piñatex(R), an innovative, vegan and natural

alternative to leather made from sustainably sourced pineapple leaf fibres.

Through the collection and extraction of fibre from pineapple leaves from its

farms in Philippines, one of the largest pineapple plantations in the world,

Dole is not only taking another step toward its Promise of zero fruit loss by

2025 but is also contributing to a world where sustainable material

alternatives are becoming increasingly important as global lifestyle brands

look for these alternatives for their products.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/152677/dole_packaged_foods_logo.jpg

Dole, which launched its six-prong Promise in June 2020, is committed to making

an immediate and lasting impact when it comes to food waste, eliminating

processed sugar and plastics, and improving nutrition access globally. In

addition to its partnership with Ananas Anam, Dole is working towards a more

circular economy and finding new packaging solutions for its products to reduce

not only food waste, but plastics overall.

"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."

Through this partnership, Ananas Anam's Piñatex(R) is made of 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.  The use

of the pineapple leaf fiber also presents the opportunity to build a scalable

commercial industry for developing farming communities and livelihood

improvement for small scale cooperatives / growers. See partnership video here(

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3232221-1&h=573604966&u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FdXiAHKyRCZI&a=here

).

"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.

"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(R) 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.

Piñatex(R) 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.

About Ananas Anam

London-based Ananas Anam is a B-Corp(TM) certified company responsible for

developing innovative plant-based textiles disrupting the world of fashion

materials and leading the way in sustainability. Their pioneering approach and

progressive business model are driven by creative thinking, seeking out new

ingenious technologies, and showing that ethics and business can be combined

successfully.  Ananas Anam's instinctive and heartfelt desire is to protect and

nurture; thereby building a better future for people and planet.

https://www.ananas-anam.com

About The Dole Sunshine Company

The name Dole Sunshine Company is used to represent the global interests and

combined efforts of Dole Asia Holdings, Dole Worldwide Packaged Foods and Dole

Asia Fresh. Dole Sunshine Company is not an actual business entity and does not

operate as such in any country or region. For more information on Dole Sunshine

Company, please visit www.DoleSunshine.com or www.SunshineForAll.com/en/blog.

SOURCE: Dole Packaged Foods, LLC

CONTACT: Melissa Vigue, mvigue@peppercomm.com