December 2018
NATURELLEMENT POPCORN
OUR STRATEGIC APPROACH
Nataïs has always been committed to a sustainable agriculture. One of our main goal is to work with our farmers as partners towards more responsible farming practices. Moreover, we share with them our passion for high quality popcorn.
Our new strategy Naturellement Popcorn aims to strengthen our sustainability commitment to farmers, consumers and the food industry in general while answering their growing expectations. Naturellement Popcorn is based on 3 pillars: Agroecology principles implementation, Premium popcorn offer, Responsible and precision farming promotion (Think Global – Act Local).
LET’S TALK FURTHER…
Our ambition is to guarantee consumers a high-quality popcorn from the field to the finished product: a palm oil free microwave popcorn made with 100% natural flavoring that will bring authenticity and transparency to consumers.
We support family farming and incentivize farmers to increase responsible farming practices. We work together with them anticipating and building the future of farming.
OUR AGROECOLOGICAL PRACTICES
To preserve &
increase soil
fertility thanks to
a simplified tillage
that will prevent soil
erosion.
to optimize the
efficacity of irrigation.
Biological pest
control to fight
against corn borer.
To use soil
mapping and data
management to go
towards a precision
agriculture.
CARBON FOOTPRINT
Today there is a growing awareness of the impact of human actions on the environment. We are all concern; consumers, food industry, farmers, and we all have high expectations in this regard. Nataïs has always worked in partnership with its farmers towards responsible agricultural practices in order to grow a high quality and sustainable popcorn maize.
Therefore, at Nataïs, our goal is to develop a measurement tool that will calculate and compensate farmers for the positive impact to carbon footprint. The aim of this approach is to encourage farmers improving the natural soil fertility by applying the principles of agroecology. Farmers will be rewarded for their commitment and positive impact to carbon footprint thanks to a bonus per ton of stored carbon.
Thanks to the development of these agroecological practices we add value to our popcorn and we support you by bringing differentiation to the market.
A WORD FROM MICHAEL EHMANN
I grew up in a family of farmers, surrounded by fields, and it wasn’t long before I became passionate about farming myself. For the last 25 years, I have been working in favour of a more sustainable and innovative agriculture, focusing on finding ways to respect our soils and work alongside nature instead of against it.
The Naturellement Popcorn philosophy brings together our passion for popcorn, love of the land and taste for innovation. Through innovative farming techniques such as our Green tillage concept, we combine cover crops, conservation tillage and precision agriculture; bringing you a top quality and environmentally friendly popcorn while ensuring economic durability for our farmers.
YOUR POPCORN COMES FROM OUR FIELDS
HARVEST TIME IN FRANCE
Harvest time started mid-September and lasted until the beginning of November for our French farmers. Around 7 000 hectares were harvested this year, which represents more than 40 000 tons of corn.
Did you know that our 260 farmers have to bring the corn at Natais within 24 hours after the harvest? By following this guideline our farmers avoid any cross-contamination and this ensures total traceability from the fields to our silos.
During the harvest, trucks are coming in and out of Nataïs nonstop. Average is around 50 trucks per day but some days we can reach 130 trucks!
IT’S PLANTING TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA
Since mid-November our agronomic team focuses on our crops in South Africa. This is planting time for south African farmers who produce around 1060 hectares of corn! The corn will grow in their round fields (the round shape is due to their irrigation system with central pivot) and will be harvested around May 2019. Have a look at that field shape!
NATAÏS EVENTS
WHAT’S NEW AT NATAÏS?
We have inaugurated last September our new silos Helianthus intended to store our popcorn crops.
This new facility offers an extra capacity of 12 000 tons and aims to support our production development and sales growth in-and outside of Europe.
SIAL PARIS
That was something!
We were very happy to meet you at our booth and it was quite special for us to unveil our new strategy Naturellement Popcorn.
We trust that by following this path we keep working and innovating to build the future of farming as well as to offer you a high quality popcorn!
THE NEXT EVENTS
We look forward to seeing you at our next events as well!
27th to 30th January
13th to 16th February
17th to 21th February
At Nataïs we practice the green tillage technic meaning that during winter we grow cover crops to protect the soil from erosion and increase soil fertility before planting popping corn. Do you know why we need to prepare the soil with conservation tillage?
Our farmers take great care to prepare the soil with conservation tillage to dry the ground and to bring it to the right temperature in order to prevent sowing corn in mud. Conservation tillage will also limit runoff from fields!
Thanks to the green tillage technic we store significant amounts of carbon in their soil, playing a crucial role in reducing their environmental footprint.
Copyright © 2018 nataïs
see popcorn.fr website