Since our foundation, Organic Republic has always been run in accordance with our personal values. We're here every day and we want to feel good about what we’re doing.

Until now, this was just something we did. But, we’ve recently been told that we should shout about it a bit more. So, we developed this page to tell you a bit more about how our values influence our business practices.

Our ethical practices have grown with us – we have never had an overall strategy beyond just doing what we felt was most ethical and right.

Because we have friends in the food policy world, we know that what’s considered best practice one week may change with the publishing of a new report or when new information comes to light. We can't promise that we’ll be able to adapt immediately, but we can promise that we're paying attention and will change if we can.

All of our produce is Organic or Wild Organic Republic is audited and certified by the Soil Association (UK5), so you can be assured that we meet the strict organic standards set by the most trusted name in organic food.

Of course, this means we source from farms and suppliers who are also recognizably certified organic or, if biodynamic, certified by Demeter International.

The only non-organic produce we sell is sourced in the wild, which is not possible to certify as organic. All of our wild produce is foraged for us in the forests and coasts of Wales.

We buy as much product as possible from the UK

We always buy from British farmers when we can, but we would be the first to admit that it isn’t always easy. There is simply just not enough certified organic fruit and vegetables grown in the UK to meet the demands of the market. There is also, unquestionably, an issue of variety – consumers are just not prepared to eat cabbage all January!

While we are continuing to work towards increasing our UK suppliers, we are also proud that we work with some of the best organic producers in Europe. Many of them are smaller farmers working in cooperatives and can reliably supply us with the variety that UK consumers expect.

If you are an organic grower in the UK, we would be very interested to hear from you. Please email us at suppliers@organicrepublic.com or call us on 020 8965 6435.

We do not import any produce by Airfreight and we never have

All of our non-UK fruits and vegetables arrive in the country either by lorry or by sea. We have weekly deliveries from Italy, Spain and France through the Channel Tunnel, while we receive some of our products via sea from New Zealand and South Africa.

This choice can mean that we do not stock all of the products that we might wish – for example papayas and passion fruit. Although these would be nice to have, we simply don’t think they’re worth the earth.

We know that there are issues surrounding the link between air freighting and economic development in poor countries. Although we are very aware of the debate, we have not had to grapple with the issue because we have never imported food in this way. However, we do believe that one answer would be for more effort to be directed towards tackling some of the other barriers of importing more sustainable products from developing countries, such as dried fruits.

We supply Fairly Traded goods

Organic Republic has developed long-standing relationships with all of its suppliers - as a small and flexible company, we are able to work with our suppliers in a fair and equitable partnership.

Mostly, in order to guarantee produce quality and reliability, we think it better to source from the same farms and suppliers season after season, as opposed to chasing that month’s best price from whoever can provide it.

We do not insist that our farmers and suppliers hold FAIRTRADE certification where this might be relevant. Through working with them closely we have learned much about the issues and problems with receiving FAIRTRADE certification and do not consider it to always be the right choice.

So, although you may not see the FAIRTRADE logo on all of our products, you can be assured that Organic Republic offers a fair deal to its growers and suppliers.

We minimise waste

We are among the first participants in the London Development Agency/Park Royal food waste pilot scheme. Our participation means that any and all of our food waste is collected for composting.

The vast majority of the other waste that we produce is also sent for recycling and we are proud that we only send about one bin bag a week to landfill!

Moreover, to help our customers (and their customers) also minimise their waste, all of the packaging that we use for our pre pack is compostable.

So, if you feel that we are missing something, get in touch and let us know. We may have an answer, or it may be an entirely new issue to us. Either way, we'd be happy to talk with you about it.