Piñatex by Ananas Anam Celebrates 5 years

Ananas Anam has just celebrated the fifth anniversary of the commercialization of Piñatex. Made from waste pineapple leaf fiber, the brand claims that Piñatex is the most sustainable plant-based alternative to leather. The company has collaborated with brands like Nike and Mārīcī, and recently made a deal with Dole Sunshine Company to source raw material for its materials.

In an interview with Vegconomist, Melanie Broyé-Engelkes, CEO of Ananas Anam, states that “the textile is the only supply-chain transparent alternative to leather which fully addresses the performance, sustainability, price and capacity growth needs of the market.” The material is meant to be used in diverse applications, and “also develop and promote social, cultural and environmental betterment.”

The uptake in interest in sustainable fashion comes from the growing awareness of the harmful impact of the fashion industry on the environment and on its workers all along the supply chain.

According to Broyé-Engelkes, the partnership with Dole will allow for “a much larger volume of pineapple leaf fibres, to meet the ever-increasing demand for Piñatex not only in fashion, but also in the upholstery and automotive sectors. Working closely with Dole’s teams on the ground will help us to create a wider positive social impact among farming communities, by creating more jobs and generating additional revenue streams, and to continuously reduce our environmental footprint by valorising waste at scale”.

“Dole’s teams will work closely with the pineapple growers on the ground to organise the collection of waste leaves and the fibre extraction, while ensuring that the leftover biomass is reinjected into the farms as compost or fertiliser. Ananas Anam purchases the pineapple leaf fibres and uses them to produce Piñatex. Once the fibres are purified, dried and processed, we create a non-woven mesh which forms the base of our sustainable textile. It is then finished using colour pigments and a bio-based protective coating to meet the material property requirements for applications in the footwear, fashion accessories, upholstery and automotive sectors.”

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Ananas Anam  aims to scale production over the next 2 years, while slashing production times in half and offering more competitive prices.

“In the long-term, we will expand our product portfolio to enter new verticals, expand the use of renewable resources across our supply chain to become carbon neutral without relying on reforestation, and develop social impact projects at larger scale.”

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