On Wednesday, February 11, a total of 123 participants logged onto Zoom to take part in the first online meeting of 2026, organized by the Ethical Trade Forums. The event was entitled “Sustainability reports and performance evaluation”.
The day began with a panel of experts, featuring Gemma Sánchez-Danés (EFRAG) and Alba Herrero (VALORA). The first speaker shared a global overview of sustainability reporting in Europe, focusing on the reduction of the criteria currently required for reports, highlighting that environmental standards are included by organizations in the fruit and vegetable sector, with less standardized breakdowns, as this is the information that users are currently requesting.
Meanwhile, Alba focused on going beyond the CSRD, analyzing other reporting frameworks and highlighting the strategic value of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is the voluntary standard most widely used by the sector. She argues that sustainability is no longer a matter of obligation, but rather a strategic issue; companies need to define their reporting strategy, communicate this definition, and generate a valuable relationship with their stakeholders. When analyzing the sustainability information published by a sample of 40% of ETFA member companies, more than 50% publish sustainability reports with different degrees of maturity, with the retail sector standing out, with environmental, social, and governance issues being the sector’s priorities.
Next, David Parra (Primaflor) and Teresa González (BOLLO Naturalfruit) shared two very complete reports, the first of which has even been awarded and recognized, and the second one is powerful from a marketing point of view. Both discussed their experiences with sustainability reports, moving from obligation to real commitment, and the challenges and opportunities they have faced.
After the coffee break, Marcos Clar (Vicente Giner) led a discussion on performance management, sharing his company’s experience in this area and illustrating with practical examples how they use performance evaluation.
Sara Ferrer (Ayanet RRHH) presented her approach to effective management in evaluating performance in the fruit and vegetable sector. She gave examples to illustrate the usefulness of performance evaluation and some keys to developing it, proposing different methodologies.
Matías Sánchez (CRIT ETT) shared a presentation on the usefulness of performance evaluation, highlighting that, in his organization, they do not evaluate the performance of the workers they assign to companies, but rather evaluate their own management as an organization, assessing not only individuals, but also entire departments through different indicators.
Finally, to close the day, the Ethical Trade Forums thanked everyone who shared their presentations and knowledge during this meeting.
