Soy

In 2022, in consultation with key stakeholder advisors, we developed our methodology to verify deforestation- and conversion-free soy purchase volumes.

Based on this methodology, we completed deforestation risk assessments of our soy supply chains in Latin America, which helped establish a deforestation-free baseline and inform further due diligence planning.

We will continue to strengthen our supplier engagement and due diligence in identified deforestation high-risk regions, with particular focus on indirect suppliers, as we strive to reach our global deforestation- and conversion-free supply chain target by the end of 2025.

Sourcing Certified Sustainable Products in Latin America

LDC predominantly exports soybeans from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

Seeking to meet customer demand for sustainable products, while generating a sustainability premium for farmers, we further reinforced our sustainability certification programs in the region by enlarging our group of certified farms in Brazil more than fivefold, increasing the number of chain-of-custody certified facilities across Latin America to 26 (up from 7), and significantly expanding volumes of soy sold under sustainability certification and verification standards.

During 2022, around 46% of soybean volumes sourced by LDC in Argentina held sustainability certifications such as 2BSvs, RTRS and US EPA Renewable Fuel Standard Program. At our General Lagos agro-industrial complex specifically, 85% of soy processed in 2022 was certified as sourced from land not cleared after 2008, in accordance with 2BSvs and EPA requirements – an 8% increase year on year, that advances our ambitions to exclusively process certified sustainable soy at the facility.

In 2022, we also laid the groundwork for a new farmer program in Argentina that aims to support sustainable soy production in line with LDC’s FEFAC-benchmarked Program for Sustainable Agriculture standard. This farmer program will be fully implemented in 2023, offering technical support to enhance sustainable practices on farm level.

Sectoral Collaboration

LDC actively participates in La Visión Sectorial del Gran Chaco Argentino (ViSeC), a sectoral initiative that aims to promote and communicate science-based actions supporting sustainable soybean production in Argentina. The focus is on monitoring and controlling land-use change for agricultural purpose in the Gran Chaco biome, through a traceability and monitoring system along the production chain that collates monitoring and verification data on all soybeans marketed in Argentina, combining sustainability parameters and requirements relevant to the soybean market.

This initiative relies on the contribution and commitment of various stakeholder groups, including farmers, industrial companies and local communities, among others. It aims to generate data in a reliable and publicly accessible manner, in order to instill confidence in buyers and promote a responsible, transparent and economically viable Argentine soy value chain.

Historic drought levels in Paraguay severely impacted soy production in the country, with exporters’ association CAPECO estimating 2022 soy production as the lowest in 20 years, despite a much larger planting area. In this context, our sustainable sourcing volume suffered a setback, decreasing by almost 60% from previous year.

Nevertheless, we launched new pilots to further improve traceability data acquisition and management in our operations, continued to participate in the Paraguayan Chamber of Grain and Oilseed Processors‘ (CAPPRO) Sustainability Commission and further contributed to the development of the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program in Paraguay, which promotes more sustainable land management and soy/beef production in sensitive landscapes that stretch across 160,000 ha.