Traceability Is a Means to an End
Consumers increasingly require greater transparency about the products they buy and that changes the way companies look at their supply chains. This is especially relevant for food manufacturers, as certain crops – palm oil, cocoa -, or milk require support to become sustainable.
The moral value of food is a new addition to our relationship with the nourishment that keeps us going. In times of scarcity, which characterizes most of our history, it was enough for food to just be. When we had abundance – which was a result of industrial agriculture, food safety measures in place and global distribution – we became more discerning, because we needed sound criteria to help us make choices. Sometimes, that was price, other times, emotional connection to a product. More and more, in the past 20 years, the moral value assigned to foods became a strong reason to favor one ingredient above others. Consumers want to know where their favorite foods come from and they want to know they were ethically produced, so that they also feel good about themselves as end-users.
And the food industry listened, albeit it is a long and complicated process to ensure traceability of ingredients produced half a world away from where they are processed and transformed into, for example, delicious chocolate.
“More than ever, our customers are requesting greater transparency into the supply chains behind the products they buy,” says Kate Clancy, Group Sustainability Director for Cocoa & Chocolate at Cargill, one of the largest food companies in the world. “We see the greatest interest in our cocoa, palm and soy supply chains, but interest in sustainable, ethical sourcing extends across all our supply chains.” Their customers – and their consumers – want assurance that raw materials are sourced in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way, with high regard for social standards and ethical economic practices.
In Cargill’s case, the process of becoming transparent started with setting sustainability goals in 2017. These include reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in their operations by 10% by 2025, against a 2017 baseline, then reducing GHG in their extended supply chain by 30% per ton of product by 2030, against a 2017 baseline. Other objectives are to achieve sustainable water management in all priority watersheds and to transform their agriculture supply chains to be deforestation-free. Training on sustainable agricultural practices and improved access to markets for 10 million farmers by 2030 was included, as well as respecting internationally recognized human rights.
In practice, these goals took different forms. They mapped which technology they could use and for what purpose. “For example, in our direct cocoa sourcing network, GPS/polygon mapping of farms and digital barcodes that electronically track individual bags of cocoa beans are helping us achieve first-mile traceability,” says Clancy. “We also track and document financial transactions, including using mobile solutions to pay cocoa farmers when possible, so that we can trace back cocoa payments and have visibility into how sustainability premiums are invested.”
A similar approach comes from Kerry, a major ingredients company. Maarten Butselaar, Responsible Sourcing Senior Manager, explains: “Given our from-food-for-food heritage, the greatest impacts associated with our products often lie with agricultural production. While it can present social and environmental challenges, agriculture can help reduce poverty, raise incomes and improve food security for 80% of the world’s poor.” As part of their vision to create a world of sustainable nutrition, they are supporting their suppliers to drive more sustainable practices, ensuring that 100% of priority raw materials are responsibly sourced by 2030. “In 2022, we set out and communicated our requirements for suppliers across categories linked to deforestation and we continue to work directly with supply partners and other third parties on programmes deployed at farm level.”
Traceability Practices Help Prevent Child Labor
For Cargill, the investment in technology and partnerships resulted in them seeing the sources of our cocoa and oil palm “like never before.” The monitoring benefits farmers, too, says Clancy, as it helps provide greater assurance to the market, consumers and regulators that cocoa and palm is grown in a responsible and sustainable way.
“Importantly, traceability helps us to develop targeted intervention programs,” she explains. “GPS mapping of the cocoa farms, overlaid with maps of forests, allows us to focus our activities where it is most needed to protect and restore forests. In addition, we’ve partnered with PUR Projet to support on-farm restoration and forest protection in buffer zones of important conservation areas. Cocoa farmers like Ouatara Shaka are at the center of our work. He’s one of the nearly 22,000 cocoa farmers in our supply chain who have started adopting agroforestry practices that reforest areas while also supplementing farmers’ incomes.” This intervention has led to more than 1.2 million trees planted on farms that, as they grow and develop, have the potential to sequester nearly 137,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2040 – and demonstrates how cocoa farming and forests can co-exist, says the expert.
A major concern when it comes to cocoa production is child labor. Monitoring every step of the process allowed Cargill to understand more about where the risk comes from and thus they are able to create partnerships with the International Cocoa Initiative, CARE, Save the Children, governmental agencies and others to address the root causes of child labor. These efforts include helping families secure birth certificates so their children can attend school, supplying school materials and equipment, rehabilitating and expanding school infrastructure and supporting nutrition programs.
You can read the rest of this article in the March-April issue of European Baker & Biscuit, which you can access by clicking here.