How far are we from a sustainable soy industry?
As the world is trying to overcome COVID-19 crisis, it is more crucial than ever to build more resilient and sustainable soy supply chains.
We are glad to share hopeful news regarding soybean meal used in animal feed production in Europe: the second European Soy Monitoring Report[1], released on 28 May 2020, by IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative[2], points to a transition towards responsible and deforestation-free soy imports in 2018, showing that we are slowly but surely moving in the direction of increased sustainability.
The report provides an overview on the current soy statistics and the status of relevant initiatives in producer countries and in Europe.
Some highlights:
- 38% of the soybean meal consumption in Europe was compliant to the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines[3] and 19% was deforestation-free.
- EU+ (EU 28 plus Norway and Switzerland) imported 15.5 million tons of soybeans and 18 million tons of soymeal (mainly from Brazil, the United States and Argentina).
- Europe is increasing the domestic production of soybeans, reaching 10.4 million tons in 2018 (in 2011 it was 4.7 million tons).
- There is a method, developed by FEFAC[4], calculating the risk of deforestation in specific regions which shows that 77% of all the soybean meal imported to the EU+ is sourced from regions with low deforestation risk.
Path forward
Achieving a sustainable soy industry is an effort that requires commitment from all actors involved in the supply chain. Moreover, for Europe to reach 100% deforestation-free imports for soy, there must be a strong support to improve high-risk producing areas, intensive collaboration and financing mechanisms that prioritize sustainable production.
ProTerra Standard has a long-standing history and experience in promoting sustainability in the food and feed supply chain and segregated non-GMO materials. It complies with the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines and the Retailers’ Soy Group’s (RSG) minimum criteria for responsible soy[5] on the International Trade Centre’s (ITC) Standards Map, contributing towards deforestation-free and responsible soy supply chains.