Friesland­Campina and Agrifirm: United in the pursuit of guaranteed deforestation-free soy in livestock feed

In the course of 2022, deforestation-free¹* soy for livestock will be supplied by Agrifirm to FrieslandCampina member dairy farmers. Both cooperatives would like to encourage the entire feed sector to join their initiative, so all dairy farmers can make the switch with their feed.

The demand is there, but there needs to be a larger deforestation-free supply

Hein Schumacher, CEO at FrieslandCampina: ‘Responsible sourcing is one of the priorities within our sustainability programme “Nourishing a better planet”. This also applies to the soy our members purchase. Since 2015, therefore, only RTRS²-certified soy is used for livestock feed. However, a next step is necessary, and we would like to help our members with this. They must be able to rely on the fact that their sustainably purchased soy is also free from deforestation. That is why we are now starting a pilot with the agricultural cooperative and feed supplier Agrifirm, so that in 2022 approximately one-third of our members can switch to guaranteed deforestation-free soy. However, together with Agrifirm, we want to challenge the rest of the livestock feed sector to take more steps in this direction faster and where possible, we will help to achieve this. Because as cooperatives, we know: you achieve more together than alone.’

Ruud Tijssens, Group Director Public & Cooperative Affairs at Royal Agrifirm Group: ‘Our goal is to ensure 100% of the soy required by dairy farmers is guaranteed to be harvested from non-deforested fields. The social cost of soy production must not be at the expense of nature, climate or farmers. Therefore, the additional costs of this guarantee will be passed on to the market, thus avoiding a cost increase for dairy farmers. Ultimately, we want to be able to offer farmers 100% guaranteed deforestation-free soy. We believe this is possible, which is why we are taking part in this large-scale trial.’

Dick Hordijk, CEO at Royal Agrifirm Group: ‘As Agrifirm we are continually working step by step, on tomorrow's responsible food chain. Making a contribution to solving the deforestation issue is an integral part of that. This is another step in the right direction.’

Soy in feed already RTRS certified

The majority of the daily ration for the cows of almost 17,000 member dairy farmers of FrieslandCampina comes from their own land or land in close proximity. Most of it consists of grass and maize. A small part consists of various products, such as beet, wheat, and residues from the food industry, supplemented with soy. Since 2015, FrieslandCampina members are only allowed to purchase from livestock feed companies that are certified in accordance with the GMP+ scope responsible dairy feed (sustainable 'RTRS' soy). Currently, approximately 99.5% of the soy in livestock feed comes from deforestation-free sources. Unfortunately, despite this certification and the checks carried out, it cannot be guaranteed for 100% that the soy supplied is produced entirely without deforestation. This is why FrieslandCampina, together with Agrifirm, has taken the initiative to get this 100% deforestation-free 'stream' going.

1. Deforestation -free, in line with the EU-definition describing when we speak of ‘forest’ Proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free products (europa.eu)
   • ‘forest’ means land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 m and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ, excluding land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use
2. Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS)