Sustainability consultancy business moves to offer services for EUDR compliance
Deforestation has increased through a number of sectors including with palm oil and cocoa. Pic: Shutterstock
Sustainability consultancy firm, FoodChain ID, has unveiled its latest Deforestation-free Services drive, targeting support for companies seeking to gain further guidance on the upcoming EUDR legislation with the EU, writes Neill Barston.
Plans for the key environmental laws were first unveiled several years ago, and are due to come into force at the end of this year – despite pushback from a number of European nations on the cost of implementing the scheme.
At its heart, the policy aims to ensure that businesses of medium-to-large scale are operating with deforestation-free supply chains, which has remained a significant issue for the cocoa sector in particular, which has contributed negatively to forest loss through farming in core producing nations of Ghana and Ivory Coast. The two West African nations have suffered extensive forest loss over the past five decades, with industrial activity shouldering a large part of that responsibility, as well as impact from illegal gold mining.
As FoodChain ID noted, the EUDR regulation requires any operator or trader who places the identified commodities or their derivatives on the EU market, or exports from the EU market, to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the agricultural sector is responsible for 73 percent of deforestation worldwide.
FoodChain ID’s Deforestation-free Services help food manufacturers and brands in regulatory compliance, as well as in their pursuit of forest land preservation and a healthy planet. Based on the regulatory requirements and FoodChain ID’s expertise in the food industry supply chain, services will immediately address the required commodities and derivatives of cattle, cocoa, soy, palm oil and coffee. FoodChain ID offers due diligence services, including supply chain documentation review, geolocation data acquisition, deforestation risk assessments using remote sensing technology and identification of risk mitigation needs. FoodChain ID also offers a verification service for claims submitted during due diligence, assessments of high-risk suppliers and audits.
Ruud Overbeek, PhD, Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategic Relationships at FoodChain ID said: “FoodChain ID’s Deforestation-free Services are an extension of our 25+ years of experience in sustainability services for the food industry and their supply chains. For example, the services align with our ReSeed partnership to monetize and deploy deforestation-free, regenerative practices with farmers. We are constantly evaluating our services and understand the agile approach required to keep up with the ever-changing regulatory landscape and to protect our planet.”