Product innovation to enhance human wellbeing
We want to contribute to peoples’ working and living standards and to their wellbeing and development. Both with our products itself as with the way they are made.
Our core business activities ultimately contribute to the reduction of hunger, by working on food security and improved nutrition in less developed communities in the world, and more specifically in Africa. Also, our product is highly valuable for the health industry, used in food supplements and medicines. This is an area where we see many opportunities for our organization to make a positive contribution to society.
In our own organization, we highly value the health, safety and wellbeing of a broad group of stakeholders. Our large base of employees are the indispensable core of our business. Offering good labour conditions and caring for employee development are a central part of our business.
Our customers and the communities we work with are also of significant importance to us.
We want to take good care of all of these different groups that are inextricably connected to our organization and day-to-day operations. Combining our people-focused activities under one pillar enables us to positively contribute to happy people with and within our organization.
"Our core business activities ultimately contribute to the reduction of hunger, by working on food security and improved nutrition in less developed communities.".
We are in a position to offer only the very best food products on the market. Taking every possible measure to ensure the safety, nutritional quality and acceptability of the delivered foods is on top of our list. We believe good hygienic practices in the handling, manufacturing and transportation of fish and fish products, and adequate refrigeration throughout, can greatly contribute to this safety and to post-harvest losses.
One way to optimize our high standards for quality and safety is via in-house monitoring and laboratory testing, enabling us to provide only the highest standards of food safety. In addition, we sell and donate nutritious and protein-rich fish product to a variety of communities in low-income African countries, where a large share of our operations take place. With increasing population levels and climate challenges, sustainable fishing is vital to safeguard food security around the world.
We offer consumers (who are increasingly looking for ways to live a healthy life) fish products that are an important part of a healthy diet. To live up to market developments, our companies are increasingly developing as many healthy products as possible, with less salt and no additives. The popularity of and demand for organic products is growing. Our companies Deutsche See and Heiploeg are recognized as market leaders in developing organic fish products, such as organic shrimps and salmon.
Part of our mission is to use every part of our product. We therefore explore new ways and sectors where our fish and seafood products can be of value for people. Many parts of the fish and shrimps contain valuable ingredients of food supplements and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, another way for us to put our product to use with eye on human wellbeing.
Involved, proud and enthusiastic employees are of great importance to us. Therefore, we invest in our people in a positive way and provide safe and pleasant working and living conditions to support their health and wellbeing. Management processes within our organisation promote safety and health at work. A healthy and safe workplace means that we offer fair terms and conditions of employment, occupational health and safety and personal development opportunities for our people. We want to make sure that every person that works for one of our companies is protected in the workplace; by trying our upmost to reduce any risk.
The pursuit of economic growth through employment creation and income generation should be balanced with protection of basic rights of workers. For any business, the workforce is a valuable asset, and a sound worker-management relationship is a key ingredient to the long-term sustainability of the enterprise. We believe we have a responsibility to create fair labour conditions and employee development opportunities. We build a good, fair and inclusive working environment, and make employees aware of the working conditions and terms of employment.
The Parlevliet & van der Plas companies are located on most continents and our operations take place in and around a variety of communities. The economic impact our companies have on these communities is best demonstrated by the job opportunities they create and the effects of these jobs on the local economy and trade. We believe that sustainable development correlates with empowering local communities. In turn, empowered local communities contribute to achieving and strengthening sustainability throughout our company. Therefore the Parlevliet & van der Plas Group continues to invest in its relationships with local communities by taking responsibility for improving the lives of the people working and living where we operate.
Besides the positive contribution to (local) economies and communities from our core business, we also aim to contribute to development by:
- Sponsoring local (sports) teams, charities and events
- Contributing financially and with our knowledge to (fishery) schools to educate the next generation
- Being a major provider of employment in fishing communities in many European and African countries
- Safeguarding the values and principles that are shaping our business (and employees working at our companies for many years): trust, dedication and a shared passion.