AIC welcome guidelines for producing responsible soy

The Guidelines reflect what FEFAC considers to be the minimum social and environmental requirements for soy cultivation and provide a professional recommendation for interested parties seeking to enter the market for responsible soy.

The Sourcing Guidelines build upon six basic principles (legal compliance, environmental responsibility, good agricultural practices, protection of community relations, respect for land rights and responsible working conditions) are presented under ‘essential’ and ‘desired’ headings for social, good agricultural practice, environmental criteria and verification rules. The guidelines aim to promote the implementation of continuous improvement plans by interested member organisations.

Angela Booth – Chairman, FEFAC Sustainability Committee said: “FEFAC now has some baseline criteria to assess global soy standards which will be an extremely valuable tool help the mass movement of sustainable soy. The guidelines can also be further developed in the future to meet new consumer sustainability requirements.”

For AIC, Chief Operating Officer John Kelley said: “AIC welcomes this initiative by FEFAC as a pragmatic approach to achieving market sustainability requirements within the global supply of soy – this approach will add a new level of transparency which will be welcomed by many parts of the supply chain.”

Compare your criteria with FEFAC guidelines

An independent benchmark system is currently being developed by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and is expected to be operational in July 2015. This online system will allow standards owners and company schemes to compare their criteria with the FEFAC guidelines and to assess whether they meet the requirements. This will increase market transparency and stimulate the improvement of existing schemes and programs.

Kevin Brassington, President of FEDIOL: “In the consultation round of key stakeholders FEDIOL has given its support to the FEFAC approach. It offers a solution to building up sizable mainstream volumes of sustainable soybeans and soybean products for the EU supply chain, while at the same time keeping an outlook for constant improvement.”

The draft guidelines are available on the FEFAC website. Comments and suggestions from other European stakeholder organisations on the guidelines can be sent until May 15 to fefac@fefac.eu.