USA – Members of the Soft Commodities Forum (SCF) who include global agribusiness giants have committed to common framework supporting transparent and traceable soy supply chains in Brazil.
SCF consists of leading soft commodities companies convened by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to do business responsibly.
Brazil, which is a global leader in soy production is threatened by native vegetation loss resulting from cattle and soy expansion in the Cerrado region.
In a bid to accelerate sustainable development across its businesses, COFCO International, the overseas trading subsidiary of COFCO Corp was the latest to join WBCSD.
WBCSD is a CEO-led platform for further collaboration with stakeholders across various industries with the common goal of feeding a growing global population sustainably.
The founding members of SCF are Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), while Glencore Agriculture joined in June last year.
“We are continuously seeking to rise to the challenge of feeding the world’s growing population in a sustainable manner.
This means being mindful to preserve the environment, including areas of importance for their biodiversity.
Brazil’s Cerrado Biome is one such area, where every effort must be made to ensure that any agricultural expansion occurs together with the preservation of native vegetation.
The Soft Commodities Forum allows us to set common sustainability goals with our peers, and mutual reports on our progress, as one of the means we have to ensure fair and sustainable value creation,” said Ian McIntosh, CEO of Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC).
Sustainable, safe and high-quality supply chain
Based on the new commitment, each company will report updates on progress every six months and participate in the processes of the Cerrado Working Group to develop agreed common definitions, to design appropriate financial incentives, and to outline actions which should be taken.
Starting with 2018 harvest data, the SCF member companies will report individually the percentage of soy they each source in the Cerrado from the total Brazilian volume.
Together, the SCF members will closely monitor municipalities with the highest risk of conversion of native vegetation to soy, based on GTC information.
Sourcing in these municipalities will be reported in percentages of direct purchase from farmers, and indirect purchase, from parties like aggregators, cooperatives and third parties.
The process is supported by non-profit group, Proforest and the first report will be issued in June 2019.
“The Soft Commodities Forum facilitates the first time leading global commodity traders are working together in a pre-competitive project to address sustainability risks they all share, but which no single company can resolve alone.
Unprecedented collaboration such as this, together with other stakeholders, is required to address these complex food system challenges,” said Diane Holdorf, Managing Director Food & Nature at WBCSD.
