Bunge Launches Unprecedented Program to Monitor Soybean Crops from its Indirect Supply Chain in the Brazilian Cerrado
Bunge has launched the Bunge Sustainable Partnership initiative to enhance traceability and monitoring of soybeans in Brazil's Cerrado region, a critical area for deforestation. This program aids grain dealers in implementing verification systems, offering Bunge's geospatial monitoring tools at no cost. Currently, Bunge achieves 100% traceability for direct purchases and aims to extend this to indirect purchases over the next four years, monitoring 30% of these currently. The initiative supports Bunge's commitment to achieving deforestation-free supply chains by 2025.
- Bunge achieves 100% traceability for direct soybean purchases.
- Initiative aims to achieve 100% traceability for indirect purchases within four years.
- Partnership provides grain dealers with cost-free access to monitoring tools.
- Currently, only 30% of indirect purchases are monitored.
Bunge launched an unprecedented initiative to share best practices with grain dealers about traceability and monitoring of soybeans crops linked to its indirect supply chain in the Cerrado region, one of the high-risk areas of deforestation in Brazil. Dubbed Bunge Sustainable Partnership, the program will help partners implement supply chain verification systems, including satellite and farm-scale images. Dealers can adopt independent imaging services or use Bunge's geospatial monitoring structure at no cost. The initiative is part of Bunge's global non-deforestation policy with a public and voluntary commitment to reaching deforestation-free value chains worldwide by 2025.
Bunge already has
"We recognize the important role we can play in our industry. This unprecedented initiative is a way for Bunge to share with its supply chain the best practices we use to build value chains that are traceable and verifiable. We value our partnership with dealers and producers to make our supply chains increasingly productive and sustainable and we believe that solutions at-scale and with long-term impacts are only possible when all partners in the value chain, from farmers to customers, are involved and engaged," says Rob Coviello, Bunge’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Government Affairs.
The company will share its experience, methodologies and tools with partner dealers interested in implementing or improving the social and environmental evaluation of their suppliers (farmers). For monitoring, which involves verifying soybean crops by satellite images, dealers may choose to contract their own systems or use Bunge's structure free of charge. The pilot program is being carried out in partnership with Agrícola Alvorada, and data from the properties the dealer buy soybeans from have already been included in Bunge's satellite monitoring cycle for this year.
"Bunge's support and expertise in monitoring and tracking is critical to the overall improvement of our supply chain. It accelerated our adaptation to market demands," says Jarbas Weis, managing director of Agrícola Alvorada.
Farm-scale monitoring
Bunge is the only company in the sector that uses data from Brazil's Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) at this scale to obtain accurate information about the dimensions of the properties and their borders in Brazil. This enables the observation of land-use changes more accurately on each of the monitored properties, which is otherwise not possible with limited GPS coordinates. This new offering would allow grain dealers to use the same model to monitor their suppliers.
"Grain dealers play an important role in our industry by giving market access to small and medium-sized farmers. By helping them implement traceability and monitoring systems and tools, we are doing our part to contribute to the entire sector," explains Roberto Marcon, Bunge's Origination Director.
Under its global non-deforestation commitment, Bunge also takes several actions to encourage sustainable agriculture, from special financing lines to mapping areas already open and suitable for soybean expansion. The most recent example is the AgroApp Bunge, an app that works as a hub of information and tools to support sustainable production, to address sustainability-related issues and to offer overall support to farmers. Through this communication channel, farmers have easy access via mobile devices to CAR data on their properties, which contributes to the property's overall environmental and biodiversity management.
About Bunge
At Bunge (www.bunge.com, NYSE: BG), our purpose is to connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world. With more than two centuries of experience, unmatched global scale and deeply rooted relationships, we work to put quality food on the table, increase sustainability where we operate, strengthen global food security, and help communities prosper. As the world’s leader in oilseed processing and a leading producer and supplier of specialty plant-based oils and fats, we value our partnerships with farmers to improve the productivity and environmental efficiency of agriculture across our value chains and to bring quality products from where they’re grown to where they’re consumed. At the same time, we collaborate with our customers to create and reimagine the future of food, developing tailored and innovative solutions to meet evolving dietary needs and trends in every part of the world. Our Company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and we have more than 23,000 dedicated employees working across more than 350 facilities located in more than 40 countries.
Website Information
We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.bunge.com, in the "Investors" section. We may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.
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FAQ
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