Kapatagan Banana Growers Marketing Cooperative earns Preferred by Nature’s Carbon Footprint Certification

Kapatagan Banana Growers Marketing Cooperative (KBGMC), a smallholder farmer group supplying exclusively for Unifrutti Tropical Philippines, has earned Preferred by Nature’s Carbon Footprint Certification (CFC). This builds on the cooperative’s existing Rainforest Alliance and Preferred by Nature certifications, and makes KBGMC the first in Unifrutti’s supply chain to achieve CFC.

The new certification affirms KBGMC’s efforts to meet the high sustainability requirements set by Unifrutti, a global player in the tropical fruit industry known for its responsible sourcing standards. 

“Getting certified helps us meet Unifrutti’s expectations, and at the same time, it pushes us to keep learning and improving,” said Raymundo E. Manlabe, Jr., Operations Manager at KBGMC. “It’s a useful step for identifying where we are and where we want to go.”

Why Carbon Footprint Certification matters

CFC is designed to deliver practical benefits for both companies and suppliers. By adopting the certification, organisations can gain a competitive edge through verified carbon data, meet regulatory requirements while simplifying climate reporting, and demonstrate sustainability leadership to clients, investors, and stakeholders. It also helps identify opportunities to reduce emissions and enhance carbon sequestration.

Integrated with existing audits such as Rainforest Alliance or Preferred by Nature Certification, CFC offers a streamlined, one-stop solution for measuring, verifying, and communicating a product’s full carbon footprint. For agricultural producers like KBGMC, the certification further strengthens trust and fosters long-term relationships with the companies that source from them.

Piloting CFC across farming models

KBGMC’s certification was part of a pilot programme that tested the CFC across various farm types, including smallholder cooperatives. The audit verified the cooperative’s greenhouse gas calculations and mitigation strategies, internal monitoring systems, and the entire production chain—from cultivation to packing—for fresh Cavendish bananas supplied to Unifrutti. To maintain credibility, annual checks will be conducted to ensure the data remains accurate, providing suppliers with verified carbon information they can rely on.

“This pilot shows that even smallholder cooperatives can meet rigorous standards,” said Peter Feilberg, Executive Director at Preferred by Nature. “Our system is adaptable, practical, and ready for a wide range of producers.”

KBGMC’s path to certification 

KBGMC took concrete steps to measure, manage, and reduce its carbon footprint, demonstrating how smallholder cooperatives can implement CFC:

• Tracked emissions across 138 farm units and 188.5 hectares of land, including 25.5 hectares now managed for growers who lack capacity to oversee their own farms
• Planted native trees along farm boundaries and water bodies to enhance carbon sequestration
• Conserved forests and adopted chemical-free, biodegradable banana bags that can be reused 2–4 times
• Implemented waste reduction, recycling, and reuse practices across the cooperative.
• Calculated the carbon footprint of 0.271 kg CO₂e per kg of fresh bananas at the farm gate of KBGMC.  

These verified actions provide transparent information on carbon footprints. This helps KBGMC showcase sustainability leadership, gain a market advantage, and demonstrate how the CFC add-on can be integrated into existing operations to meet regulatory requirements, support climate action, and strengthen market position.

“Unifrutti has long sought to back its sustainability claims with measurable impact,” said Francis Evan L. Manayan, Local Compliance, Risk, and Sustainability Officer at Unifrutti. “This certification helps smallholder partners credibly report their carbon footprint, contribute to broader climate goals, and implement it more easily than other standards we’ve worked with.”