The Ministry of Agriculture has issued a call to tender for the 15th edition of the free fruit programme for schools, which supplies nearly 400 educational facilities in the Grand Duchy with fresh fruit.
Over 300 primary schools and 70 secondary schools benefit from the programme.
The call for tender is split across five categories. Three are intended for local suppliers, primarily for apples, pears and carrots, which represent a third of the programme, while the other two categories target distributors who can supply the balance and transport all the food products to the school sites.
In order to be eligible to supply the 2.2 million portions of fruit and vegetables across the school year, the suppliers must agree to host school trips at their farms. Smaller suppliers can join forces to submit an application.
Just ten percent of all the products must be organic, according to a statement published by the Ministry on Friday, in order to limit imports from abroad. Locally produced carrots in particular should be cultivated organically in order to qualify for the programme. Around a third of all fruit and vegetables come from local producers.
All bananas provided as part of the programme must be fair trade and organic.
The programme benefits around 98% of all Luxembourg's primary and secondary pupils, across 399 school sites. The portions are delivered on a weekly basis and coordinated by the Administration of Technical Services for Agriculture (ASTA) in order to create less admin for schools themselves. In addition, the programme organises trips for classes - in 2022, 208 primary school pupils participated in visits to local fruit suppliers and market gardeners.
The call to tender will run until mid-September and was published on the government procurement website.
