How we measure soil health using baseline tests across all farms

Healthy soil is a living foundation for the food we grow and the communities around our farms. It supplies crops with water and nutrients, stores organic matter, supports soil life and helps protect rivers and groundwater. Treating soil health as an operating responsibility rather than a slogan gives our teams a practical way to improve both food quality and environmental performance.

At Fresh Del Monte Produce, the starting point is a baseline: a documented set of measurements showing the condition of the soil before a practice changes. The same approach is applied across all farms, while each result is interpreted against local crops, climates and soil types.

A baseline can cover physical, chemical and biological properties. It may reveal constraints that are otherwise hidden, such as compaction, low organic carbon, acidity or poor nutrient availability. It also gives us a reference for checking whether compost applications, cover crops and improved irrigation management are delivering measurable benefits.

Consistent records are especially valuable in Australia, where rainfall, temperature and soil conditions change sharply across regions. A wet-season result from the wet tropics must not be compared casually with a dry-season result from inland horticulture. Baseline testing keeps those distinctions visible and turns broad sustainability goals into evidence we can review.

A baseline turns soil into a reference point

A baseline is a benchmark captured before a management change and repeated later under comparable conditions. It lets us judge whether compost, altered fertiliser practices, cover cropping or reduced soil disturbance are producing measurable gains instead of relying on appearances.

Applying this approach across all farms does not mean imposing identical targets. Tropical volcanic soil, sandy orchard soil and coastal clay have different natural properties and productive potential. A useful framework applies consistent sampling and reporting while interpreting each baseline against its crop, climate and local soil type.

Those contrasts are familiar in Australia. Heavy rainfall can leach nutrients from banana-growing country around Innisfail in Queensland, sandy soils around Mildura hold limited moisture, and salinity is a recurring concern in parts of the Murray–Darling Basin. An Australian baseline therefore provides context rather than simply another laboratory number.

What we measure and how we track it

Baseline sampling is most useful when the indicators match the management question. Our standard approach combines chemical and biological measurements with field checks of soil structure, water movement and biological activity.

Chemical and biological indicators

• pH and exchangeable acidity, which identify acidic conditions and guide responsible lime use.
• Organic carbon and total nitrogen, establishing starting points for nutrient cycling and soil organic matter.
• Extractable phosphorus, potassium and sulfur, interpreted using methods suited to local soils and crops.
• Salinity and selected micronutrients, particularly where irrigation water or previous fertiliser use raises a concern.

Physical observations complement the laboratory results because soil may contain adequate nutrients while remaining too compacted for roots or too unstable to absorb rainfall efficiently.

Physical and field indicators

• Bulk density and compaction, showing how readily roots can penetrate the sampled layer.
• Water infiltration and aggregate stability, connecting soil condition with rainfall and irrigation.
• Ground cover, earthworm activity and residue retention, recording biological function and surface protection.

Each result is stored with its sampling conditions and interpreted using crop-specific guidelines. Where irrigation chemistry is relevant, water alkalinity, salinity and sodicity are recorded alongside the soil readings because poor-quality water can alter fertility over time.

Sampling consistently across different soils

Consistent sampling starts with mapping each farm into management zones based on soil type, slope, irrigation, past fertiliser use and crop history. Representative locations are then selected within those zones. This approach captures meaningful variation without demanding an impractical number of samples from every field.

Depth, position within the root zone, season and analytical method must remain comparable at each revisit. For Australian samples, NATA-accredited laboratories provide a recognised check on technical competence, while ISO/IEC 17025 offers a comparable international framework. Interpretation also considers Australian soil classifications and locally calibrated crop ranges rather than applying one threshold everywhere.

Water availability is measured alongside soil condition. Our review of dry-region water harvesting in Kenya highlights the value of capturing scarce water for agricultural use. Soil testing helps determine where retained moisture can deliver the greatest benefit and where salinity or waterlogging could offset those gains.

Turning measurements into farm decisions

Results become useful when they guide specific decisions. A low organic-carbon reading may support a compost or cover-crop programme; compaction may prompt changes to traffic, cultivation or root-zone treatment; and acidity may justify a carefully calibrated lime application. The purpose is to improve soil function while protecting crop performance and avoiding unintended environmental impacts.

The records also provide a shared reference for growers, agronomists and buyers. That matters for responsible sourcing because improvements should rest on observable field outcomes, not only compliance paperwork. Soil-health evidence can complement goals for tree planting, protected-land monitoring and agricultural education across our wider sustainability strategy.

Protection extends to the water surrounding each farm. Sediment and nutrient runoff can affect shared waterways and community supplies. Swiss Clean Water Group’s work on chemical-free water treatment is a useful reminder that protecting community water depends on both sound treatment and healthy surroundings.

In Australian cities such as Brisbane and Melbourne, household compost bins and kerbside organics services are familiar habits, while shoppers encounter produce through retailers including Coles and Woolworths. These everyday connections make transparent sourcing evidence increasingly relevant. Under the Australian Consumer Law, misleading environmental representations can breach consumer protection rules. Clear soil records, documented sampling and repeated results provide a stronger basis for responsible claims than broad statements about being environmentally conscious.

What long-term soil progress looks like

Progress is reported as a pattern, not a single score. A change in nutrient availability may reflect weather or sampling conditions, so credible reporting identifies those factors and uses comparable sampling windows. Carbon results are also interpreted alongside bulk density, avoiding the mistake of treating changes in concentration as changes in total soil carbon stocks.

Soil-health findings sit alongside Fresh Del Monte Produce’s wider commitments to sustainable sourcing, tree planting, protected landscapes and farmer development. They do not replace those goals; they add measurable information about the condition of the land on which production depends and the effectiveness of selected practices.

Remember that credible soil-health progress begins with comparable baseline measurements, careful local interpretation and repeated evidence of change.