Tesco and Lidl are two of 38 leading food companies launching a set of actions to ensure all soy used in UK animal feed is deforestation free.
Among those representing nearly 60% of the UK’s soy consumption and signatories of the UK soy manifesto are supermarket giants Aldi, Co-op, Iceland, M&S, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
With the Agriculture Industries Confederation (AIC) which represents four major importers of soy and animal feed to the industry, these food producers have set out supply chain action which looks to produce a quarterly soy deforestation risk register for UK soy imports.
It also aims to agree a joint transition plan coordinated by a high-level cross supply chain governance group, with the support of stakeholders, to monitor and review the transition to ensure risk and responsibilities are shared.
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A key part of this transition will include ensuring UK companies producing and selling meat and dairy products that use soy in animal feed, have a practical mechanism to specify that they require deforestation and conversion free soy, with robust checks and controls to assure standards are met.
As a result, the actions announced today (18 November), include a commitment from AIC to develop a new verified deforestation and conversion free (vDCF) standard for the UK which will be independently verified.
“The AIC Soy Supply Group commitment to providing quarterly data for a UK risk register is significant as the group is the sole source of data on what is shipped and sold to the UK as vDCF,” SIC head of feed sector, James McCulloch said.
“The data helps all parties understand the progress that has been made and focusses attention and resource on areas where there is still work to be done. Whilst market challenges are real, our industry remains committed to delivering DCF soy and sustainable supply chains.”
He added: “Around the world nature is in freefall, and unsustainable agriculture is driving its catastrophic decline. To protect precious natural habitats like the Cerrado in Brazil, we must urgently ensure soy imported to the UK is not driving the destruction of nature overseas.”
