Requirements for soy feed

Working together to tackle soy-driven deforestation and ecosystem conversion 

Soy is a globally traded commodity produced in both temperate and tropical regions and serves as an important source of protein and vegetable oil production. Soybean meal is also widely used in animal feed by our meat and dairy suppliers. With a rising global demand for these products, soy has become one of the world’s largest crops, and is associated with a number of sustainability challenges. 
 
This expansion of soy production has led to the deforestation and habitat conversion of some of the world’s most precious places, particularly in South America. These include the savannahs and dry forests that make up The Cerrado of Brazil. As well as being a rich ecosystem for plants and wildlife, the Cerrado also plays a vital role in the fight against climate through carbon sequestration. 

Whilst alternatives to soy in feed supply chains exist and continue to be developed, currently there is no widely available alternative that can be proven to all livestock at scale. 

Our commitment and case for action 

We have long been committed to tackling deforestation and land conversion associated with our supply chains, and at COP26, in November 2021, we committed to ensuring our own-brand product supply chains would be Deforestation and Conversion Free (DCF) by 2025, with a cut-off date of 2020. This includes our soy supply chains, which we have identified as some of the most salient for ecosystem conversion risk. 

The critical role of forests and ecosystems was highlighted at COP26, particularly in achieving climate goals. The objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement cannot be achieved without critical action on forests, which includes tackling land conversion for agricultural commodities such as soy. 

We know we need to work with our suppliers and others to tackle this issue as an industry and address the key challenges together. We also support the introduction of UK Due Diligence legislation that would ban the sale of products linked to illegal deforestation, including soy-driven deforestation, and help bring clear expectations on supply chain traceability to all supply chain actors. 

1. Delivering Deforestation and Conversion Free (DCF) soy for our products  

Since 2021, we worked closely with our suppliers to  make progress towards our 2025 100% DCF soy target. One core element of our Sustainable Soy Feed Requirements is that by 2025, our own brand suppliers evidence that the soy in our supply chains is verified DCF by virtue of its low-risk origin (national or sub-national), or through effective monitoring / procurement systems (e.g. satellite monitoring at farm level).

We recognise that the lack of supply chain transparency is currently a major challenge in the industry, and that there needs to be a concerted effort across the soy supply chain to improve it. We need to move away from a credits-based system towards delivering real supply chain visibility.  

While significant progress has been made in improving transparency in supply chains, our target of achieving conversion-free soy by 2025 continues to face significant industry wide challenges Although the EU Deforestation Regulation is supporting progress towards deforestation free soya, there is currently no commercially viable certification scheme for conversion free soya. This is an industry wide challenge and we need to work collectively both within the UK and through global initiatives to engage directly with traders. Through the Retail Soy Group and the UK Soy Manifesto, we are supporting plans to work with major traders to understand how much soy coming into the UK is already DCF. Promoting greater transparency and data sharing in supply chains will build on the transparency delivered by the EUDR and improve our understanding of the rates of conversion in our supply chain. 

We will continue to use certification as a bridge to indicate market demand for DCF soy, whilst the systems that will deliver the supply chain transparency are developed. Our roadmap recognises the speed at which different types of production systems can move are different and have therefore phased expectations over this timeframe and for different value chains, in line with industry. 

Our progress 

As part of our Plan for Better, we have committed to reporting transparently on our performance. You can find our historic performance here and our 2024 Own Supply Performance below.  

Our estimated soymeal footprint in 2024 was 204,686 metric tonnes (178,771 in 2021; 210,467 in 2022; 191,154 in 2023). 

Traceability: 

• % soymeal volumes from known country of origin – 73%
• % soymeal volumes from known traders/importers - 70% 
• % soymeal volumes from high risk origins or unknown origins – 41% 

Progress on ensuring soy is deforestation and conversion-free: 

High-risk origin defined as: Unknown country of origin, or from the following countries: Brazil; Argentina; Paraguay; Bolivia; Uruguay 
Soymeal footprint measured by a third party using a combination of disclosed volumes from direct suppliers and conversion factors for different animal proteins. 

Our soy footprint from animal feed is measured by third party 3keel, and calculated using a combination of 1) suppliers in scope of our soy requirements, 2) disclosed volumes, origins and certification from direct suppliers and 3) conversion factors for different animal proteins. Our DCF volumes are calculated as the % which is certified under an acceptable scheme and chain of custody or traceable to a low-risk origin. All DCF volumes are sourced from suppliers with a DCF control mechanism in place. 

 2. Supplier and trader engagement

Whilst setting clear expectations for our own products is an important first step, we don’t think this is sufficient. We want to work with our suppliers and the soy traders they source from to ensure that they are not contributing to deforestation elsewhere in their operations. We know this will be achieved progressively, but by working with other retailers and manufacturers we believe we can send a clear market signal to bring sector-wide change. 

We are founding signatories of the UK Soy Manifesto, which was launched in November 2021. All signatories to the manifesto share the goal of ensuring all soy imports to the UK are verified DCF by 2025, and pledge to take action in their supply chain to achieve this. Specifically, signatories commit to: 

1. Set a deforestation and conversion-free commitment with a cut-off date of January 2020 or earlier. 

2. Ask direct suppliers to adopt and cascade the same commitment 

3. Integrate Manifesto commitments within direct supplier commercial contractual requirements, and support compliance 

4. Publicly disclose progress 

5. Encourage harmonised monitoring, verification, and reporting 

We identified our top 24 critical suppliers by soy feed footprint, which largely include meat, fish, poultry, and dairy suppliers. Together they represent 85% of our estimated soy feed footprint. In April 2022, we asked these suppliers to match our ambition and become signatories, and begin reporting publicly against its individual commitments. 

Performance of all of our own-brand suppliers against the UK Soy Manifesto asks: 

• % of soymeal from signatories to the UK Soy Manifesto: 89%
• % of soymeal from suppliers that have a Deforestation Policy in place: 86%
• % of soymeal from suppliers with a transition plan in place: 77%
• % of soymeal from suppliers with a monitoring system for their suppliers: 73%
• % of soymeal suppliers that publicly report against their commitments: 31% 

As well as engagement of our direct own-brand suppliers, we are engaging with the soy traders and importers in our supply chains. It is critical we work together to improve traceability in soy supply chains and encourage better agricultural practices by soy farmers in high-risk regions.  

The UK Soy Manifesto pledges that we are asking our own-brand suppliers to adopt are aligned with the Forest Positive Approach, which we helped develop as members of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition of Action. Sainsbury’s have contributed to a shared vision for what it means to be Forest Positive as a company in a soy supply chain, building on the Coalition’s Soy Roadmap. The five basic elements of the Coalition’s “Forest Positive Approach” are for businesses to have: 

Public commitment to ‘deforestation and conversion-free’ across entire soy commodity business, including a public time-bound action plan with clear milestones 

Process for regular supplier engagement 

Mechanism to identify and to respond to grievances 

Support initiatives delivering forest positive development at landscape/jurisdictional and/or sectoral level 

Regular public reporting against defined key performance indicators. 

We have communicated and engaged five of the top global soy traders (representing 48% of our soy footprint) on this guidance so far, with further engagement due to take place this year. 

Annually the performance of soy traders and importers against the five elements of the Forest Positive approach is independently evaluated through the Soy Transparency Coalition (STC) (further information below).  

The STC did not run an assessment for 2024. The average score from the 2023 assessment of the five traders in our supply chain which are also assessed by the STC, is as follows:  

• Those with public commitments: 42%
• Supplier Engagement: 13%
• Monitoring and Response Systems: 43%
• Support for Landscapes: 43%
• Transparency and Accountability: 10% 

3. Monitoring and Response 

Whilst certification has been an important tool in helping ensure our products do not contribute to deforestation, we recognise the challenge represented by the lack of supply chain transparency in global soy value chains. 

To address this, we have partnered with others in the industry to establish the Soy Transparency Coalition (STC), a pre-competitive group of soy buyers who together assess the sustainability performance of soy importers and traders. The questionnaire covers trader’s commitments and policies, as well as their efforts in implementing them. We have used the 2021 STC assessment to measure the performance of the top soy traders against the elements of the Forest Positive Approach. The list of the main traders in our supply chain can be found below under ‘2021 Soy Importers list’, as well as a list of our own-brand manufacturers where soy was used in animal feed for our products.

4. Supporting sustainable production in soy landscapes

Engaging in production landscapes means going beyond our own supply chain and addressing the root causes of deforestation, taking into account economic and social factors facing producers. 

In 2022 we directly supported Brazilian soy farmers to protect and conserve local biodiversity. We are providing a £3.5m investment to the Responsible Commodities Facility, a fund that offers low-interest, green loans to farmers conditional on the preservation of natural environments they could legally convert. The fund operates in Mato Grosso, Piauí, and Goiás states in Brazil where there is a high risk of the Cerrado being converted.  

In the 2022-2023 growing season, the Responsible Commodities Facility loaned $11 million from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to 32 farms. In 2023-24, this initial investment was successfully leverage to £47m by bringing three more investors on board. The impact of this investment is set out below: 

Within Mato Grosso state we are also supporting another landscape initiative to explore a different mechanisms to enable the transformation of soy and cattle producing landscapes. Read more on our beef page here. 

Methodology for identifying initiatives to invest in 

Working with the CGF, we collectively developed an approach to identifying landscapes to invest in. This is in order to ensure the initiative has the fundamental conditions which will allow it to deliver long term change in the landscape. These are aligned to the Forest Positive Coalition landscape principles and  the Landscape Reporting Framework This involves examining 4 areas: 

1. Funding: there should be clear incentives for producers to adopt more sustainable practices. Initiatives should also have long term plans to access funding beyond Sainsbury’s, in order to maximise impact and ensure resilience.
2. Multistakeholder partnerships and governance: initiatives need to engage with local stakeholders, particularly farmers/ growers, in a shared vision for the landscape. There should be clear processes to encourage collaboration and resolve any trade-offs. This also includes ensuring government support for the initiative, to ensure a conducive regulatory framework, and private sector support, to demonstrate a market demand for more sustainable products.
3. Action Plan: initiatives should have a plan to establish DCF sourcing areas, conserve/ restore forests and natural habitats and clear targets with baselines and milestones.
4. Monitoring Reporting and Verification: the initiative should have systems to track progress against KPIs. This includes using the Landscape Reporting Framework.

5. Commitment to human rights 

We are committed to respecting human rights across our value chain to ensure the people who make or grow our products are not being exploited or exposed to unsafe working conditions - and ensure our businesses’ transition to Net Zero is just and equitable for the communities we source from.  

Our Group-wide Ethical Sourcing Policy sets out the standards we require of all our suppliers. These are based on internationally recognised codes of labour practice, including the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Base Code, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) core conventions, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have long-standing procedures to ensure that these standards are met. 

Our code of conduct for Ethical Sourcing stipulates that suppliers must have documented all legal and / or customary rights in relation to land and water use of their operations. When land or water rights have been relinquished by Indigenous People or Local Communities to the benefit of the supplier, the supplier shall ensure that the decision was reached through a process of Free, Prior & Informed Consent in line with national legislation. If any land or water rights claim is brought against the supplier through judicial or non-judicial processes, the supplier shall engage in good faith to resolve the conflict and should keep Sainsbury's informed at all stages of the claim. 

Further information about how we champion human rights can be found on our website.

6. Industry Collaboration  

As a member of the CGF Forest Positive Coalition of Action, we are actively involved in driving collaborative effort to eliminate soy-driven deforestation and conversion and drive forward efforts to protect forests and natural ecosystems. 

In 2020, the CGF launched the Forest Positive Coalition of Action, comprised of 18 member companies committed to moving efficiently and quickly toward a forest positive future. With a collective market value of USD 1.8 trillion (GBP 1.3 trillion), these member companies are in a leading position to leverage collective action and accelerate systemic efforts to remove deforestation, forest degradation and conversion from key commodity supply chains. In 2020, the focus was on developing and committing to the Coalition’s Charter and driving stakeholder engagement through Commodity Working Groups. 

Our aim in participating in the implementation of these roadmaps is to drive collaborative efforts to accelerate the removal of commodity-driven deforestation and human rights abuses from individual supply chains and drive transformational change in key commodity landscapes. The latest public soy roadmap we have committed to can be found here. 

WWF Retailers’ Commitment for Nature  

During COP26, where Sainsbury’s was a principal supermarket partner, we also signed the WWF Retailers’ Commitment for Nature. The collective aim of this initiative is to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets by 2030 and tackle deforestation, supporting our commitment to achieve 100% deforestation and conversion free supply chains by 2025. In March 2022, our CEO Simon Roberts joined other UK retail CEOs as part of this commitment in signing a letter to the major soy traders, calling on them to become signatories to the UK Soy Manifesto and collaborate on better supply chain transparency. 

Retail Soy Group  

Together with other retailers we also work collaboratively with the  Retail Soy Group  to determine the minimum requirements we believe industry standards should include. This ensures we can help develop and foster a strong, multi-stakeholder set of zero deforestation standards. This year we have continued to directly challenge traders to deliver DCF soy by 2025 through the UK Soy Manifesto and meetings with specific traders. 

UK Roundtable on Sustainable Soy  

We also continue to collaborate with the UK industry and government via the UK Roundtable on Sustainable Soy  to address the link between soy production and tropical deforestation. The Roundtable brings together significant players in the UK soy market, providing a space for companies and industry associations to work together to achieve a shared goal of a secure, resilient, sustainable supply of soy to the UK, with joint progress monitoring and reporting.

Definitions – Certification Supply Chain Systems