News milk
First deforestation-free soy arrived in the Netherlands
The first shiploads of guaranteed deforestation-free soy from South America were recently delivered to Drachten. This event marks a new step in Agrifirm and FrieslandCampina's pilot to use soy as sustainably as possible. The pilot was launched last fall announced.
All soy products in the concentrates that the FrieslandCampina members purchase from Agifirm are RTRS-certified. This already complies with the worldwide standards for responsible production, processing and trade in soy. On top of the current RTRS certification, both cooperatives are looking for more guarantees, a kind of RTRS plus. In doing so, the cooperatives want to respond to criticism from NGOs regarding the felling of rainforest for soy cultivation.
Independently verified
When transporting soy from small and large agricultural companies and soy suppliers, different loads can come together, say Agrifirm and FrieslandCampina. As a result, it is less clear whether 100% of the soy that eventually arrives in the Netherlands meets the additional requirements and extra guarantees. "That can also be 99,5% clear. Or perhaps 99,9%. But we want to work towards a standard 100% certainty. That requires guarantees that the various soy loads remain physically separated and that this process is also properly monitored. there are even more implications and we are investigating this in this pilot with an independently controlled and physically closed soy chain," says Guus van Laarhoven, Regenerative Agriculture Lead at FrieslandCampina.
Physical separation not easy
Ruud Tijssens, Group Director Public & Cooperative Affairs at Royal Agrifirm Group adds: "When we started, the ambition was to work with several large soy cooperatives in South America, which have demonstrably been cultivating in the same areas for years. We know from satellite images and independent inspectors, among other things, that the landscape or the forests here have not recently been adapted to agricultural land for soy. We then wanted to be able to keep the loads physically separated. That turned out to be not easy. One moment fewer guarantees for a more transparent and traceable soy flow, which means a lot of research and searching for alternatives. this pilot is the result of that."
Clear definitions
Agrifirm and FrieslandCampina are currently working on clear definitions to create a framework for an independently controlled and physically closed soy chain that more parties can work with. Because both cooperatives would like to see the entire dairy sector move along. So that the entire chain can make the switch from 'almost completely certain' to 'completely certain' deforestation-free soy for animal feed.
Klaas van der Horst
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
