Ever wondered where we source the pomegranates used for the production of Vita Beautique?

Make agriculture Green again to meet today’s challenges

The story of Vita Beautique involves sustainable agriculture, upcycling and the cultural identity of a local tradition. Modern agricultural intensification exerted a selective pressure toward the replacement of many local crop varieties to more uniform, higher yielding professionally varieties. This had a negative impact on the conservation of plant genetic resources and biodiversity. Consequence, therefore, has been the estimated loss of 75% of the traditional crop species, known as ecotypes.

Farmers regard ecotypes as the most precious raw material, since they represent the perfect integration of local knowledge, agricultural biodiversity and precious cultural factors. Despite the effects of modern agricultural intensification, older farmers continue to cultivate their products in a traditional way contributing to preserve traditional knowledge, mostly coming from family traditions and handed down through the generations.

A trip to Irpinia, an historic region of the Campania Apennines

In the effort of safeguarding the biodiversity, promoting sustainable agriculture, preserving cultural traditions and ethical procurement, Vitalab collaborates with local farmers such as Giovomel. They are a family owned business located in the area of Irpinia, a historical region of the Campanian Apennines, specialization lies in the cultivation of the two local and ancient varieties of pomegranates. Both the varieties are registered in the Directory of the Campania Region as “local ecotypes of agricultural interest at risk of extinction” and their cultivation have been maintained and passed down through.

The orchard produces 100% organic fruits under quite strict production specifications according to family’s agronomical techniques. Therefore, the farm’s operation is completely in line with eco-compatible methods and production respecting seasonality and the natural cycle of plant growth. The mature fruits are harvested manually once a year during the month of October. Through a fair and equitable royalty program on the sales of Vita Beautique we further strengthen the value of our collaboration with the local community. We fully embraced the importance of taking the long view to guarantee full traceability, transparency and quality right from the farmer.

Upcycled ingredient designed for circularity

Did you know that the juice yield of pomegranates is less half of the fruit weight? This means that very large amounts of by-product wastes are formed every year. What we do is recover the external peels generated by the pomegranate juice production process and extract our active ingredient.

The peels are collected and dried by exposure to the sun, in order to remove the water and naturally preserve the raw material. A short drive of 50 km takes the peels here in Vitalab, where our production department is already waiting to process the valuable raw material into our active ingredient Vita Beautique.

Learn more about Vita Beautique!