Today, 70 per cent of all globally produced soy is used to feed livestock. Danish imports of soy for feed account for 0.25 per cent of global soy production, and we’re committed to playing an active role in promoting responsibly produced soy. To that end, we are part of various initiatives (see below) and participate in the research and development of alternative protein sources for feed, through our participation in the ‘Dansk Protein Innovation'.
Certified soy for pigs and cattle
In April 2020, we launched a soy action plan in cooperation with the Danish Alliance for Responsible Soy, and in 2022/23 we strengthened our targets for responsible sourcing in view of the coming EU legislation on deforestation. Our target is for all farmer owners and other suppliers of slaughter animals to use 100 per cent responsibly produced soy (deforestation free and legally produced) in feed from 2025.
Find out more about our approach in our other main production countries in our programme to prevent deforestation and land conversion.
Partnering to combat deforestation
As a member of the Danish Soy Alliance, we are supporting a project "Scaling Up Sustainable Soy Partnership" initiated by the Ethical Trade Denmark and WWF to combat deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado region. The Cerrado, an agricultural frontier for several crops, faces significant land conversion challenges, and it is the region, and it is the region, where Danish soy consumption has the most significant deforestation and conversion footprint. Through this partnership, we're dedicated to promoting sustainable practices among Cerrado producers and securing support from financial institutions and downstream companies to create a sector-wide agreement against soy-driven deforestation and land conversion. The activities in Cerrado will be complemented by activities in Denmark focused on the main soy supply-chain actors under the Danish Soy Alliance.
Commitments and partnerships to deforestation-free soy and palm oil
As cooperation is key to achieving responsible supply chains for soy and palm oil, we are participating in several stakeholder initiatives in this area and have signed up to relevant commitments:
- Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
- Round Table on Responsible Soy
- Danish Alliance for Responsible Palm Oil
- Danish Alliance for Responsible Soy
- UK Soy Manifesto
- Swedish Platform on Risk Commodities
- 'Dansk Protein Innovation' partnership
Responsible palm oil in feed and food
We have been a member of the Danish Alliance for Responsible Palm Oil since November 2020, and since October 2021, we have bought credits equal to the use of palm oil in the feed for our Danish slaughter animals from the certification programme Roundtable on Responsible Palm Oil (RSPO). In addition, we only use palm oil that is RSPO certified in our processed food products.
We have an action plan to further improve our work on ensuring that palm oil used in our value chain is produced responsibly. Our goal is that from 2025, all palm oil in the feed for our slaughter animals is produced responsibly. This is in line with our focus on implementing the EU Deforestation regulation (EUDR).
Policy and programme to prevent Deforestation and Land Conversion
We have an important role in protecting forests, which is why we work to reduce risks related to deforestation and land conversion in our global supply chain. As part of our efforts we have developed a Deforestation and Land Conversion Policy and established a programme to support the implementation of the policy.