Round Table on Responsible Soy Association

Compromiso de Lantmännen: 50% da sua compra de soja será RTRS em 2013

11 de junho 2012

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Swedish Lantmännen and IDH agree to speed up development of RTRS soy

11 June 2012

IDH and the Swedish Lantmännen, one of Scandinavian’s largest food, energy, machinery and agriculture companies, signed an agreement last week that will support the development of responsible soy production. Lantmännen’s target is 50% RTRS soy by 2013. IDH will match fund up to € 306.000 of the Lantmännen investments. The money will be used to help Latin American soy farmers to comply to RTRS criteria, to map High Conservation Value Areas in Brazil and to support reach out activities of the RTRS.

Worldwide, over 100 million of hectares arable land is used for the cultivation of approximately 234 million tons of soy. In recent years many Non Governmental Organizations’, scientists and companies in the soy sector have jointly formulated criteria for responsible soy farming: The Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS).

Compliance with the RTRS criteria will help reduce the negative social and environmental impact that soy cultivation is associated with, such as deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

Strong incentives

Jan Nicolai, soy program director of IDH: “We applaud the commitment of Lantmännen. This is a very positive step of a major European player towards 100% RTRS soy sourcing and secures the growing demand for RTRS soy which will provide strong incentives for Latin American soy farmers to become RTRS compliant. Next to that, increasing production and trade of RTRS soy will help to reduce the initial system costs.”

The agreement between IDH and Lantmännen includes a stepwise approach in which the company will increase the purchase of RTRS certified soy, towards the target of 50%, approx 70.000 tons and they invest in RTRS certificates to reach that in 2013. IDH will match fund up to € 306.000 of what Lantmännen will invest in the responsible sourcing.

Soy Fast Track Fund

That money will be used to support RTRS compliance of soy farmers, which is executed through the so called IDH Soy Fast Track Fund, managed by Solidaridad. Gert van der Bijl, international soy program coordinator at Solidaridad: ‘As a front runner Lantmännen has set an example that hopefully will be followed by other Scandinavian players. RTRS is a good instrument to reduce negative social and environmental impacts’ .

Towards full implementation

For Lantmännen, owned by 35,000 Swedish farmers, operating in 22 countries employing over 10.000 employees, responsible sourcing of soy is an part of the overall sustainable business strategy and an important investment to secure a responsible market position. Mikael Jeppsson, head of Purchase and Grain at Lantmännen: “It is satisfying that we, as a small but proactive player on the global soy market, can contribute to the development of more responsibly soy production. Now we have taken the first steps with RTRS soy and showed that it is possible to proceed. We now look forward to working together with our customers, suppliers and other stakeholder to move towards full implementation of certified soy’ .

Fonte: página web da IDH

http://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/