An environmental initiative backed by UK supermarkets to tackle environmental breakdown across soy supply chains in Brazil has delivered the first batch of verified deforestation-free soy.
The Responsible Commodities Facility, an initiative funded by Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, to promote the production and trading of responsible soy in Brazil, has successfully completed the first year of its trial project in the Cerrado region.
The grocers contributed to the $11m fund, which was distributed among 32 participating farms in the Cerrado in the form of low-interest loans which soy farmers used to buy seeds and fertilisers.
This allowed them to deliver 42,400 tonnes of independently verified DCF soy into the supply chain, while conserving over 8,500 hectares of native vegetation, in the first harvesting phase of the programme.
As part of the four-year RCF project, farmers also committed to forgo their right to legally convert the remaining vegetation in their lands and adhere to other social and environmental requirements.
The fund was financed through the issuance of Certificates of Receivables from the Agribusiness (CRAs), a type of green bond registered in the Vienna stock market.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said it would help the supermarket deliver on its commitment to only source soy from whole areas verified as deforestation-free by 2025.
“To help us meet this goal it’s vital we provide practical, financial support to farmers in Brazil committed to the production of zero deforestation soy and the conservation of native vegetation,” he said.
“We urge more businesses and organisations to join us in providing funding for the RCF, to aid its rollout in future years.”
Ecosystems
Waitrose executive director James Bailey added: “The scale of the challenge to halt the loss of biodiverse ecosystems like the Brazilian Cerrado requires innovative new approaches.
“We hope this pilot fund will demonstrate the huge opportunity for green finance to incentivise responsible farming practices in a way that’s sustainable and scalable, and which delivers tangible benefits to nature and farmers.”
This trial project in Brazil is part of the food industry’s efforts to make soy supply chains more sustainable in line with the UK Soy Manifesto.
The industry-wide commitment to make all physical shipments of soy to the UK deforestation and habitat-conversion free was initially launched in November 2021 and its now total 40 signatories represent the vast majority of all UK soy bought every year.
However, persistent challenges within soy supply chains have been highlighted recently when some of manifesto founders – including Tesco, Waitrose, Avara and Pilgrim’s – were recently linked to illegally-deforested soy in the Amazon.
An investigation by activist group Mighty Earth and Brazil-based campaigners last month used satellite data and on-the-ground investigation to show that soya beans that came from illegally deforest areas in the Amazon were being shipped to the UK by American commodities giant Cargill.
The beans were in turn used to feed British livestock, with that meat then ending up on supermarket shelves.
Cargill was also this week hit with a legal challenge in the US for allegedly failing to address environmental and human rights violations in its soy operations in Brazil.
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