A coalition of British food and farming groups representing 60% of UK soy consumption have announced new plans to move to deforestation-free soy.
The commitment, agreed by 38 companies, industry bodies and suppliers, aims to move all the UK’s soy imports to being free from deforestation and conversion.
The UK’s consumption of soy – 3.5m tonnes in 2020 – though small in global terms, is contributing to pressure on biodiverse landscapes such as the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest, the Gran Chaco and Chiquitania in South America.
Ten trade associations, including the National Pig Association (NPA), the NFU, the British Meat Processors’ Association (BMPA) and Red Tractor, are supporting the initiative.
Major UK meat processors including Cranswick and Pilgrim’s UK and retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi, Waitrose and M&S, have also signed the pledge.
The Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), representing the four major importers of soy and the animal feed industry, has set out a series of comprehensive actions to deliver on the aims.
This includes producing a quarterly soy deforestation risk register for UK soy imports, which will track the UK’s progress in the importation of deforestation and conversion free soy.
A key element will be to ensure UK companies producing and selling meat and dairy products - using 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.
The announcement therefore includes a commitment from AIC to develop a new verified deforestation- and conversion-free (vDCF) standard for the UK, which will be independently verified.
The 38 organisations said: “These actions will ensure that signatory companies can turn their ambitions into practical actions, supporting a mass market move to deforestation and conversion free soy use in the UK."
As well as the commitments, the groups are also calling for global markets to provide financial incentives and technical support to boost sustainable production.
Ash Gilman, director of agricultural strategy at Cranswick, said: “Transitioning to the next level of certification is not easy, given our scale and geographical locations.
“Cranswick works collaboratively throughout the supply chain and believes today’s commitments will encourage other businesses across the industry to step up."
