Second chance to fruits and vegetables - Imperfectus Box

Second chance to fruits and vegetables - Imperfectus Box

When we welcome a brand that we like, it can be felt in the smile on our faces. There are few things more pleasant than listening to a hard-working person talking about their project with great enthusiasm. If you are reading this article you probably already know us from before, but if not, you should know that in it's logic we do our best to bring you closer to other people or brands that are doing good things for the planet.

We are also launching a new video format, so you will be able to know many more details.

Today we give the spotlight to Imperfectus, a Spanish company based in Lleida that offers a solution so that not a single fruit or vegetable produced in our fields goes to waste. Usually supermarkets discard fruit and vegetables for aesthetic reasons. You know, that tomato or that pear that has a less than perfect shape but probably still tastes great. We won't go into detail about what happens to these foods because you can already imagine.

"Imperfectus gives a second chance to those fruits and vegetables that supermarkets do not accept due to aesthetic problems. We take advantage of these foods, put them in biodegradable cardboard boxes and send them to homes."

How do you define Imperfectus, Marc?

Imperfectus is an e-commerce that gives a second chance to fruit and vegetables that are not accepted by supermarkets due to aesthetic problems (skin problems, coloring, etc.). We take advantage of these fruits and vegetables. We put them in biodegradable cardboard boxes and send them to homes. It works on a subscription model, where each user receives at home a cardboard box full of local and seasonal fruits and vegetables every certain time determined by the user: weekly, twice-weekly, etc.

You realize the importance of what Marc is telling you when you go to the supermarket and find that all the fruit there is perfect, as if it came out of a mold. Nature is imperfect, and that's where the magic of it all lies. I love it when I go to my village and one of my neighbors brings that box of tomatoes with so many different shapes. They are delicious. They taste like tomatoes. But, however, you wouldn't find them on a line in any big supermarket.

You started in the middle of a pandemic! 

That's crazy. Because of the confinement, many people who were previously reluctant to buy fruit and vegetables online started to give this type of purchase a try, and it seems to be a good decision. Recurrence is very high and we barely spend on marketing, so our own customers are the ones who recommend our product.

There is something that really catches my attention in this type of projects, and that is the origin of the founders. What did they do before running their new businesses? What was their life like and what led them to create their projects?

Oriol Aldomà; "I studied to be a teacher, and I was working as a teacher, but I decided to go to Australia. There I started cooking and I learned a lot about fruit and vegetables, about the value of that food, whether it is in season or not, etc. I learned how to use seasonal fruits and vegetables to cook them in a way that people would like".

Marc Ibós; "for 10 years I have been working in the family business, which is a fruit central. My father (who is a farmer), like other farmers, brought me apples and pears, which were stored and distributed wholesale."

 

entrevista Imperfectus box en it's logic bottles. Flat bottle

Impressive. Two guys with a lot of strength, enough to raise a company that in just one year of life already has 14 workers. As a cherry on top, Oriol and Marc decided to give entry to people at risk of social exclusion so that through work they can develop as individuals and become part of the family that today is Imperfectus.

Personally, I am passionate about seeing companies acting now to improve the planet. In addition, by receiving all the fruit and vegetables in the same box, they avoid a lot of plastic and useless packaging. Yes, just those packaging that we later find in the waste cleanups that we carry out in forests around the world and that we publish in our App Act Now by it's logic. Right now these boxes full of joy can only be received in Spain, but they will be available internationally in the mid to long term.

We love Imperfectus! I think you might like it too, that's why I leave you their website so you can try to have an experience as cool as this one.