Axfood’s climate-impacting emissions from both owned and rented transports are significantly decreasing. By the end of 2025, all our transports will run on renewable fuels or electricity. Our fleet consists of over 280 trucks that can run on fossil-free alternatives such as rapeseed oil, ethanol, electricity, and gas.

Continued efforts for a sustainable transition

Our own fleet currently consists of over 280 trucks that can run on fossil-free alternatives such as rapeseed oil, ethanol, gas, and electricity. To further reduce emissions from goods transport, we will continue to develop a sustainable fleet, collaborate with the automotive industry, and work on setting requirements and sharing knowledge during transport procurement.

The reduction obligation was lowered at the turn of 2024, which means that climate-impacting emissions from transport are significantly increasing in society. Therefore, Axfood is accelerating the phase-out of fossil fuels. Over a two-year period, both owned and rented transports between warehouses and stores will switch to renewable fuels or electricity. Developing a diversified fleet also makes us more flexible and able to adapt to the technology that can provide us with the best solution in the future.

For sustainable development, we choose to avoid fuels that risk contributing to deforestation and reduced biodiversity. Therefore, we actively oppose the inclusion of palm oil in fuel.

Other measures we are taking to reduce emissions include primarily transporting fruits and vegetables by train, boat, and truck. To reduce emissions from business travel, we conduct digital meetings and increase the proportion of travel by train.

Electrified transport, data collection, and follow-up

Working with data collection and follow-up is an important part of the transition to fossil-free fuels in our vehicles.

In collaboration with Scania, we collect data on the electrified vehicles we use to analyze how they perform in operation. This allows us to plan the purchase of additional electric vehicles in a thoughtful manner.

In addition to replacing trucks in our own fleet with more sustainable vehicles, we monitor the fuel consumption of our trucks to optimize loading and driving during the distribution of goods from warehouse to store. With the help of transport optimization systems, we can efficiently plan how much load and how long distances the trucks should drive.

Axfood also actively works with eco-driving, among other things, to reduce climate impact through more efficient driving behavior.

Air freight of fruits and vegetables

Our goods should be transported in a way that leaves as small a climate footprint as possible. Therefore, we primarily use trains, boats, and trucks. Only a small fraction of our goods are air-freighted, and then only during a limited time of the year.

Fresh fruits and vegetables may be transported by air due to a temporary shortage of the product in Europe or exceptionally high demand, such as during holidays.

Other reasons include the goods having a short shelf life or being too delicate to withstand other means of transport. Axfood family’s Urban Deli does not have any air-freighted goods in its assortment.

Fruits and vegetables that are sometimes air-transported:

Fresh green asparagus is transported by boat or truck when it comes from Europe between April and July. The rest of the year, it is flown in from South America.

Lemongrass and fresh turmeric are always flown in, as are fresh haricots verts from southern Africa and South America. Papaya and carambola (starfruit) are usually only available in our stores for a limited part of the year and are often air-freighted.

Fresh figs are often sourced from Turkey. During August and September, they are transported by truck through Europe. For the rest of the year, they are flown in from other parts of the world.

Fresh sugar snap peas, green beans, and snap peas are primarily sourced from Sweden and other parts of Europe during the summer, transported by boat or truck. When they come from southern Africa or South America, they are flown in.

Fresh blackberries are typically air-freighted between November and March when sourced from countries outside Europe. Fresh blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, cherries, avocados, physalis, and passion fruit are almost always transported by boat. However, in case of shortages, individual batches may be flown in.