ADM and ProTerra Europe programs among 5 new schemes benchmarked against revamped FEFAC SSGs

The new schemes are ADM Responsible Soy, Amaggi Responsible Soy, ASC from Aapresid, PROFARM Production Standard from Food Chain ID and ProTerra Europe, reported FEFAC and the benchmarking facilitator, the ITC.

Following the first wave of schemes that successfully passed the benchmarking process in June 2021, there are now 12 more programs adhering to the FEFAC SSGs 2021.

Several other soy schemes have applied for benchmarking and are awaiting facilitation by the ITC, said the trade group.

All 12 benchmarked schemes also comply with the new specific desired criterion on conversion-free soy, said FEFAC, meaning they can offer responsibly produced soy grown on land that did not come at the expense of any conversion, legal or illegal, of natural eco-systems, including natural forests, as from a certain cut-off date, with 2020 as the latest possibility.

FEFAC president, Asbjørn Børsting, said the industry representative body welcomed the “strong response and interest of scheme owners to include the new desired criterion on conversion-free soy, which is considered as a key market driver in Europe for sustainable soy value chains.”​

An overview of all the schemes that are compliant with the FEFAC SSGs 2021 is available on the FEFAC/ITC Soy Benchmarking Tool, accessible through FEFAC’s webpage on ITC Sustainability Gateway​​.

FEFAC said the Soy Benchmarking Tool is a key element in its ambition to provide market transparency for upstream and downstream value chain partners on responsibly produced conversion-free soy, as laid down in the FEFAC Feed Sustainability Charter 2030.