News Deforestation-free soy
One-two punch Agrifirm and FrieslandCampina in soy
FrieslandCampina and Agrifirm will work together to realize a separate supply stream of deforestation-free soy. Both cooperatives believe that using this should and can be done faster. That is why a pilot project will be set up for this next year.
CEO Hein Schumacher says in a statement that responsible purchasing of raw materials has priority at FrieslandCampina, this also applies to the purchasing policy of the member dairy farmers with regard to the use of deforestation-free soy. FrieslandCampina wants to help its members that they can trust that sustainable soy is actually produced in deforestation-free areas. Together with Agrifirm, a pilot project will therefore be started next year, in which a third of the soybeans will switch to deforestation-free soy. About a third of the members buy feed from Agrifirm. "We as cooperatives know: together you achieve more than alone," says Schumacher.
Agrifirm is also pleased with the collaboration. Ruud Tijssens, Agrifirm's director of cooperative affairs, says that 100% of the soy purchased by dairy farmers is guaranteed to have been produced without deforestation. Now 99,5% of soy is already deforestation-free on the basis of GMP legislation, at least this is the case on paper. As with CO2 and green electricity, rights can be purchased for this, without the physical electricity actually meeting the claimed certification. In the collaboration that FrieslandCampina and Agrifirm will set up, the soy is guaranteed to be free of deforestation.
Additional costs from the market
Agrifirm wants to investigate the pilot project to see whether its logistics can be arranged properly year-round. Because the number of suppliers of deforestation-free soy is still quite limited, this poses a challenge, although the number of suppliers is increasing. The risk of any additional costs is assumed by FrieslandCampina and is not recovered from individual members. FrieslandCampina expects to be able to recover the additional costs from the market. No new milk flow is being set up for this, a spokesperson said. Both cooperatives indicate that they are taking this initiative out of a sense of responsibility. Recently, the European Commission indicated that it wanted to switch to deforestation-free imports of food and goods.
Wouter Job
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