Brazil-born Monica Souza has worked in procurement for the majority of her career and doesn't regret a thing. Well actually, her one regret is that her young daughter “hates tomatoes”, despite them being “fascinating and delicious”.
Souza has been with The Kraft Heinz Company for close to five years, and is now vice president for procurement and sustainability. It's not a particularly well known food and drink role, she admits, “but it's an interesting one that I love and allows me to learn more about culture and international trade”.
Prior to Kraft Heinz, Souza worked in procurement for other big FMCGs including Mondelēz International and AB InBev.
But why are we talking about her daughter's hatred of tomatoes? Well, Kraft Heinz happens to be the world's biggest deal – and buyer – when it comes to ‘processing' tomatoes, specifically for its dominating 148-year-old ketchup brand. So her daughter's dislike of the red fruit is a bit of a sore point for Souza.
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Some 600m bottles of the red stuff are sold in Europe every year and 40% of its European business is linked to the unique taste Heinz Tomato Ketchup claims to have.
As head of procurement and sustainability, Souza is the keeper of tomatoes. And that's no easy job. A raft of economic, environmental and biological barriers have to be battled on a daily basis.
But Souza is wise, logical and enthusiastic. Any problem that comes her way is batted back and snuffed out with a solution. The challenge to take better care of the soil where the majority of Kraft Heinz's tomatoes are sourced, for example, is in hand.
“We've been working with second-generation tomato grower Manuel Vászquez and his family at the Conesa Group in Badajoz, southwest Spain, for two decades. Together, we've made significant strides,” she says.
Work has been focused on an agricultural technique called cover cropping, where plants are grown for the sake of benefitting the soil and not the harvest.
AI and technology to grow Kraft Heinz's produce
As with any business, the hope of implementing an environmentally positive initiative is that it will also generate better returns.
“Through improved farming, including better management of irrigation water, nutrients, crop protection, soil preparation and optimised harvesting, we've doubled our yields in Spain,” she says.
That's an increase from around 70 to 90 tonnes per hectare to 110 tonnes per hectare. “And it's not exclusive to Kraft Heinz's farmers, we see other growers applying the technique too.”
Not only that, organic matter has been increased, which has reduced soil erosion and bolstered biodiversity. And this is all from a pilot in just four of the Conesa Group's fields in Badajoz.
