Soy is a globally traded commodity produced in both temperate and tropical regions. It is an important source of protein and an ingredient in vegetable oil production. Soybean meal is also widely used in animal feed by our meat and dairy suppliers. With rising global demand for these products, soy has become one of the world’s largest crops and is associated with several sustainability challenges.
The expansion of soy production has contributed to deforestation and habitat conversion in some of the world’s most important ecosystems, particularly in South America. These include the savannahs and dry forests of Brazil’s Cerrado. As well as being a rich ecosystem for plants and wildlife, the Cerrado plays a vital role in tackling climate change through carbon sequestration. It also supports agriculture, industry and urban water supplies through deep root systems that help recharge groundwater reserves and sustain river flows.
Whilst alternatives to soy in feed supply chains exist and continue to be developed, currently there is no widely available alternative that can be provided to all livestock at scale.
We are committed to tackling deforestation and land conversion associated with our supply chains. At COP26, in November 2021, we committed to ensuring our own-brand product supply chains would be deforestation and conversion free (DCF), with a cut-off date of 2020. This includes our soy supply chains, which we have identified as among 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 recognise that progress requires collaboration with suppliers, industry partners and policymakers. We also support legislative efforts to prevent deforestation, including the UK Forest Risk Commodities legislation, which is intended to restrict the sale of products linked to illegal deforestation, and the EU Deforestation Regulation. These measures should help establish clearer expectations on supply chain traceability for all supply chain actors.
Our approach to the sustainable sourcing of soy is informed by the past ten years of efforts to tackle deforestation in soy and other forest-risk commodity supply chains, particularly palm oil. We learned that relying only on certification can risk creating segmented markets for sustainable volumes, rather than driving a broader shift towards sustainable production as the norm. As a result, our evolved approach seeks not only to ensure that our volumes are verified as deforestation and conversion free, but also to encourage the companies in our supply chains to adopt improved production and sourcing practices. This helps ensure that our collective supply chains support the sustainable development of soy production in ways that benefit both people and nature. In parallel, we support landscape and jurisdictional solutions that aim to address the root causes of deforestation and other environmental degradation, taking account of economic and social factors at production level. We believe that supporting farmers, communities and local authorities to conserve natural ecosystems is central to tackling global deforestation and conversion.
We work closely with our suppliers to make progress towards our 100% DCF soy target. One core element of our Sustainable Soy Feed Requirements is that our own-brand suppliers must evidence that the soy in our supply chains is verified DCF, either by virtue of its low-risk origin at national or sub-national level, or through effective monitoring and procurement systems, such as 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 supply chain transparency, our goal of sourcing deforestation and conversion-free soy continues to face significant industry-wide challenges. These include delays to EU and UK forest-risk commodity legislation and the lack of a commercially viable certification scheme for conversion-free soy.
These are industry-wide challenges, and we will continue to work collectively 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 develop a verified DCF soy standard, led by the British Standards Institution, which will allow suppliers to specify the type of soy needed. We will also focus on promoting greater transparency and data sharing in supply chains, building on the transparency delivered by the EUDR and improving our understanding of the rates of conversion in our supply chain.
We will continue to use mass balance and soy credits as a bridge to signal market demand for DCF soy while the systems needed to deliver greater supply chain transparency are developed. Our roadmap recognises that different production systems can move at different speeds, and we have therefore phased our expectations over this timeframe and across different value chains, in line with wider industry 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 2025 Own Supply Performance below.
Our estimated soymeal footprint in 2025 was 196,887 metric tonnes (178,771 in 2021; 210,467 in 2022; 191,154 in 2023; 204,686 in 2024).
Traceability:
Progress on ensuring soy is deforestation and conversion-free:
2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
| Deforestation and Conversion Free (Low risk origin or Segregated) | 35.2% | 29.6% | 15.0% | 7.0% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| Certified Mass Balance - % | 17.9% | 15.5% | 26% | 6.8% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| Certified Segregated - % | 1.0% | 1.5% | 26% | 6.8% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| Certificates (Book & Claim, Regional Credits, Area Mass-Balance) - % | 47.5% | 51.5% | 48% | 38% | 56.9% | 41.6% |
| Not Certified - % | 0% | 3.3% | 10% | 55% | 42.8% | 58.3% |
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 consultancy 3Keel. It is 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 percentage that 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.
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, and pledge to take action in their supply chain to achieve this. Specifically, signatories commit to:
Set a deforestation and conversion-free commitment with a cut-off date of January 2020 or earlier.
Ask direct suppliers to adopt and cascade the same commitment
Integrate Manifesto commitments within direct supplier commercial contractual requirements, and support compliance
Publicly disclose progress
Encourage harmonised monitoring, verification, and reporting
We identified our top 21 critical suppliers by soy feed footprint, largely comprising meat, fish, poultry and dairy suppliers. Together, they represent 96% of our estimated soy feed footprint. In April 2022, we asked these suppliers to match our ambition by becoming signatories and beginning to report publicly against their individual commitments.
Performance of all of our own-brand suppliers against the UK Soy Manifesto asks:
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:
We have communicated and engaged five of the top global soy traders (representing 30% of our soy footprint) on this guidance so far, and engagement continues throughout the year.
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 work through the Forest Positive Coalition to assess the sustainability performance of soy importers and traders. We review traders’ commitments and policies, as well as their progress in implementing them. We use the outputs of this engagement to measure the performance of top soy traders against the elements of the Forest Positive Approach.
Engaging in production landscapes means going beyond our own supply chain to improve farm resilience and address the root causes of deforestation, while considering the 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 that they could legally convert. The fund operates in Mato Grosso, Piauí and Goiás states in Brazil, where there is a high risk of Cerrado conversion.
In the 2022–23 growing season, the Responsible Commodities Facility provided $11 million in loans from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to 32 farms. In 2023–24, this initial investment was successfully leveraged to £47m by bringing three further investors on board. The impact of this investment is set out below:
| 2022-23 crop season | 2023-24 crop season | 2024-25 crop season | ||||
| Impact | Overall Impact | Sainsbury’s Direct Impact | Overall Impact | Sainsbury’s Direct Impact | Overall Impact | Sainsbury’s Direct Impact |
| Deforestation and Conversion Free Soy produced (T) | 42,400 | 15,962 | 180,221 | 67,845 | 22,241 | 8,373 |
| Area of native vegetation conserved in the Cerrado (ha) | 8,541 | 3,215 | 43,324 | 16,272 | 7,991 | 3,008 |
| Area of native vegetation conserved in excess of legal requirement (ha) | 2,145 hectares | 807 hectares | 11,346 | 4,271 | 2,559 | 963 |
| Carbon Stocks maintained in forests protected by the RCF (MtC02 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 18.2 | 6.9 | 3.4 | 1.3 |
It is worth noting that the 23-24 crop cycle was particularly challenging for famers. A combination of droughts created by El Nino, together with low soy prices, and a high level of indebtedness in the sector led to a wave of bankruptcies and defaults. The RCF experienced a number of defaults. There were delays in recouping the loans and in engaging with farmers for the 24-25 crops cycle. As a result, the RCF had less money to lend out and fewer farmers to lend to. Despite that, the RCF still managed to continue the fund, which demonstrates its resilience. It was able to rebuild the fund, and a greater impact is expected for the 25-26 crop cycle. More information on the RCF can be found here.
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:
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.
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