Round Table on Responsible Soy Association

GMP+ International and RTRS agreed about the main points of co-operation regarding the certification of the supply chain of responsible soy. The coming months, the agreement will be worked out in detail. The aim is to take final decisions next September. This agreement will benefit both organizations and the stakeholders in the supply chain.

RTRS will get linked to an already internationally operating GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance scheme with over 11,800 certified companies. This will make it more easy to distribute RTRS soy to final the consumers through a controlled supply chain. GMP+ International will benefit by getting linked to an international scheme based on multi-stakeholders support. This enables GMP+ International not to start from scratch regarding sustainability.  Most important, the feed companies in the supply chain will benefit, because it will reduce cost and provides an one stop shop – multiple certification possibility.

RTRS (Round Table Responsible Soy association) manages an international certification scheme regarding the responsible production of soy beans. One of the main issues addressed in this scheme is avoidance of irresponsible expansion of soy in High Conservation Value Areas and particularly biomes like Cerrado, Amazons, Chaco, Yungas, etc.. It also covers the chain of custody through which responsible soy must be distributed to the final users. The first 400,000 tons of RTRS soy are already produced and sold into the feed & food market.

GMP+ International manages the international GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance scheme with over 11,800 participants in 65 countries. GMP+ International extends the scope of the GMP+ certification scheme to sustainability aspects of feed ingredients and feed products. The first extension in this regards is a standard for the feed companies in the supply chain following the growers of responsible soy according RTRS criteria. Currently, almost all these companies are already GMP+ certified. The combination will avoid duplication of certification cost and burden.