For Europe’s fresh produce sector, sustainability in 2026 is no longer mainly a matter of ESG positioning. It is becoming a question of operational economics. The debate is shifting away from broad reputational narratives and toward measurable business variables: yield stability, batch quality, preservation of marketable condition, shrink levels, packaging costs, market access, and the ability to back environmental claims with verifiable data, EastFruit notes.
In the fruit and vegetable business, these risks are converging faster than in many other agrifood segments. Climate stress affects product quality almost immediately. Packaging decisions influence shelf life, food safety and losses. Weak handling or logistics quickly turn into write-offs. And sustainability claims are increasingly moving from marketing language into a field shaped by calculations, reporting obligations and verification.
This is one of the key reasons why FoodRevolution 2026, to be held in Mestre, near Venice, from 11 to 13 May, is positioning several of its sessions around the practical economics of sustainability for agrifood businesses.
Soil is no longer an environmental topic, but a production risk
The European Commission states that 95% of food in the EU depends on soil, 60 to 70% of soils are in an unhealthy condition, and losses associated with soil degradation amount to €50 billion per year. For fresh produce businesses, this is not just a sustainability backdrop. It is a direct production issue linked to moisture retention, plant response to heat and water stress, resilience, product uniformity and yield consistency.
“For fresh produce, soil is not a matter of environmental rhetoric. It is a matter of crop controllability: how the crop performs under heat, moisture deficit and stress, and how consistently the grower can deliver the required product quality,” says Maurizio Paleologo, a specialist in biochemistry and food diagnostics and organizer of FoodRevolution 2026.
One of the key blocks of the conference programme is dedicated to practical tools for maintaining soil health. The Soil Health session is particularly relevant for agribusiness because it shifts the conversation from general environmental language to practical questions: how to assess soil condition, which solutions can improve resilience in farming systems, and what role biofertilisers, biostimulants, microbial inoculants and sustainable soil management practices can play. These topics will be explored by leading experts like Gabriele Berg, Annamaria Bevivino, Loredana Canfora and Claudio Zaccone.
Climate risks are increasingly translating into quality risks
According to the European Environment Agency, Europe remains the fastest-warming continent, while direct losses from extreme weather in 2021 to 2024 were estimated at around €40 to €50 billion per year. For the fresh produce sector, this does not remain an abstract climate narrative. It appears in highly practical ways: issues with size, batch uniformity, harvest windows, storability and export quality.
“A grower today does not need a general call to become more sustainable. What they need are concrete solutions that help preserve yields, reduce crop vulnerability to stress, cut chemical load and at the same time maintain product quality,” says Paleologo.
This is the focus of the Biotechnologies for Resilient and High-Yield Crops session, which will address new genomic technologies in agriculture and viticulture, the use of biopesticides to reduce residue levels, and genomic approaches to improving crop resilience and productivity. Speakers include well known scientists like Michele Morgante, Mario Pezzotti, Dennis Obonyo Ndolo and Matin Qaim.
Packaging and food waste are margin issues, not design issues
According to Eurostat, the EU generated 79.7 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2023, or 177.8 kg per person. This covers all packaging waste, not only plastic. Plastic packaging alone accounted for 35.3 kg per person. At the same time, the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation has already entered into force and will generally start applying from 12 August 2026.
For the fresh produce sector, this means packaging has firmly moved from a secondary issue to a strategic one. It affects shelf life, food safety, logistics efficiency, losses and compliance with market rules.
“For the fresh produce segment, packaging is no longer a design issue. It is a factor in shelf life, food safety, losses and, ultimately, margin. That is exactly why it cannot be discussed separately from food waste. For the fruit and vegetable business, the Sustainable Food Packaging block matters because it moves the packaging discussion from appearance to economics. It focuses on solutions that directly affect product quality retention, damage levels, losses along the supply chain and compliance with new market requirements. That is why we included topics such as bioplastics, non-plastic food contact materials, and compliance issues around recycled plastics versus recycled paper,” says Paleologo.
The European Commission estimates food waste in the EU at more than 58 million tonnes per year, or 129 kg per person, with a market value of around €132 billion. In fresh produce, this is not a side issue. Mistakes in packaging, handling, temperature control or logistics can rapidly turn into either preserved value or commercial loss.
“The Circular Bioeconomy block of the FoodRevolution conference will be useful primarily because it shows how agrifood businesses can not only reduce losses, but also work more effectively with side streams, biomass and product residues. For growers and other supply chain participants, it is an opportunity to better understand where unavoidable losses end and new sources of value begin, as well as which biological risks and regulatory constraints need to be considered,” Paleologo notes.
Carbon farming, LCA and CSRD are moving sustainability into the realm of calculations and proof
For agrifood producers, the carbon agenda is no longer simply a matter of narrative. It is increasingly becoming part of market expectations. In February 2026, the European Commission adopted the first set of methodologies under the CRCF (Carbon Removal Certification Framework), but these apply specifically to permanent carbon removals. The Commission has also made clear that methodologies for carbon farming are still being finalised and are expected later in 2026. In other words, interest in carbon farming is rising faster than the development of clear and unified rules for how it should be assessed.
“It is becoming increasingly important for agribusiness not just to follow a fashionable topic, but to understand which carbon practices may actually have practical and economic relevance, and which still require caution in both assessment and communication. That is why the FoodRevolution block on carbon farming may be useful for producers. It addresses not only the opportunities, but also the weak points of the topic: policy pathways, the financial frontier of carbon farming, as well as permanence and variability in soil carbon accounting. The practical value of these sessions lies in helping market participants understand what data are needed for calculations, where the limitations in soil carbon accounting arise, and how carefully climate impact claims should be made,” says Paleologo.
The programme also includes dedicated sessions on impact assessment, the move toward EU ecolabelling, and the way the sustainability agenda is evolving in the context of CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive). “These conference blocks help businesses better understand which indicators are becoming relevant to the market, which environmental claims require particularly careful handling, and why it is becoming increasingly difficult to work in this area without a clear methodology and reliable data,” Paleologo adds.
Fresh produce is where sustainability economics become visible first
For the fruit and vegetable sector, these issues are no longer theoretical. They already affect commercial performance. Soil impacts resilience and consistency. Packaging affects shelf life and shrink. Logistics influences product condition and write-offs. And environmental claims increasingly shape trust, positioning and access to markets. “That is why FoodRevolution 2026 may be relevant not only for sustainability professionals, but also for growers, processors, solution providers and everyone working with quality, packaging, losses and market requirements. In essence, these are the changes that are already beginning to affect the economics of agrifood business. And the earlier market participants understand this new logic, the easier it will be for them to adapt in practice,” Paleologo underlines.
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