Governance
LDC’s high standards of corporate governance are built on the strong principles and values that guide our company
Our Supervisory Board and Senior Management are committed to upholding these high standards of governance, which support the long-term performance of the company and reinforce our commitment to transparency, accountability, ethics and fairness in our relationship with all company stakeholders
Our Supervisory Board is the driving force behind Louis Dreyfus Company, overseeing and advising Management in setting company direction and strategy. This group also plays a key role in addressing risk and compliance matters inherent to the business, and approves the company’s financial statements.
Supervisory Board
(Louis Dreyfus Company International Holding B.V.)
Supervisory Board Committees
Audit Committee
This Committee’s main responsibility is to review interim and year-end statutory and consolidated financial statements, advise the Supervisory Board on their content, and oversee the quality and integrity of the information.
Committee members include:
Strategy Committee
The Committee reviews the general financial and overall strategy of the Company, and analyzes the Group’s medium- and long-term growth strategy.
Committee members include:
Compensation, Nomination and Governance Committee
This Committee makes proposals to the Supervisory Board for the compensation and nomination of individual Supervisory Directors and Managing Directors. The Committee also decides on the appointment, dismissal and compensation of the Management Team, and any other employee of the Group that the Supervisory Board identifies from time to time.
Committee members include:
Sustainability Committee
This Committee supports the Supervisory Board in fulfilling its responsibility for oversight of the Company’s ongoing objectives, goals, strategies and activities related to sustainability, including commitment to environmental stewardship (including land use, water stewardship, carbon emissions), health and safety, corporate social responsibility, human and labor rights, and other ESG matters relevant to the Company.
Committee members include:
Management Board
Louis Dreyfus Company International Holding B.V.
Louis Dreyfus Company B.V.
LDC is highly proactive in ensuring that employees and partners alike understand there is only one way to conduct business: ethically.
We believe that our success and reputation as a trusted partner depends absolutely on our ability to remain aligned with high standards of ethical business conduct. Our commitment to ethical practices and behaviors is informed and guided by our Code of Conduct and various compliance and sustainability policies.
Employees and selected partners are required to comply with our Code of Conduct, which covers the following key elements:
Employees and people working on our premises should operate in a safe, non-discriminatory work environment
Employees are expected to behave professionally and in accordance with the law; this includes not giving or
receiving, directly or through a third party, inappropriate pecuniary or other benefits
Employees should not engage in actions that could create a conflict of interest with their roles in the company
Gifts and entertainment should be of modest value and align with local laws and business practices
Due care must be taken in handling any confidential information
Company representation is restricted to employees authorized to do so by law or by delegation
It is mandatory to always follow laws and regulations, and to maintain financial records accordingly
We are committed to protecting the environment and the communities in which we operate
Code of Conduct concerns can be disclosed confidentially through a dedicated email address: http://ldc.ethicspoint.com/
• Asia
LDC Asia PTE Ltd General Terms and Conditions of Purchase
• Bulgaria
Bulgaria General Purchase Conditions
България Общи Условия за Покупка
• Canada
Canada Purchase Order General Terms and Conditions
• EMEA
EMEA General Purchase Conditions
EMEA Conditions Générales d’Achat
• France
France General Purchase Conditions
France Conditions Générales d’Achat
• Germany
Wittenberg General Purchase Conditions
Wittenberg GMBH Allgemeine Einkaufsbedingunden
• United States
US Purchase Order General Terms and Conditions
LDC’s Human & Labor Rights Policy sets out our commitment to ensure strict compliance with applicable laws, regulations and international standards, and to engage with relevant stakeholders to address causes of potential and actual adverse human rights impacts in our value chain.
As one of the world’s leading merchandizers and processors of agricultural commodities, LDC upholds the highest standards of integrity, business ethics and sustainability in our operations, and strives to build a global supply chain where the same standards are implemented.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out general principles applicable to all organizations, companies or other entities providing goods and services to LDC, in order to work toward responsible and sustainable value chains and support our suppliers along the way.
Spreading sustainable practices throughout the coffee value chain, without excluding any farmer, is a key aim for LDC.
Our Palm Sustainability Policy affirms LDC’s commitment to:
• Safeguard all high conservation value (HCV) lands and/or high carbon stock (HCS) areas
• Leave all peat untouched, regardless of depth
• Uphold the rights of local communities and/or indigenous people
• Comply with International Labour Organization conventions on forced labor and discrimination
• Abide by rigorous anti-bribery and corruption standards
Our Soy Sustainability Policy signals our intent to influence our supply chain, going beyond applicable laws and regulations. The policy commits us to:
• Influence and incentivize stakeholders throughout our supply chain to engage in zero deforestation and conserve ecologically valuable biomes
• Respect the rights of local communities, while aiming to discourage and eliminate conversion of native vegetation
• Comply with all eight fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization
• Respect protected areas, national and international
• Not endanger species classified as threatened, nationally or internationally
• Abide by rigorous anti-corruption and anti-bribery standards
The LDC Sustainable Development Policy has been designed across four specific pillars.
People – Our wide and diversified asset footprint, including our involvement in labor-intensive agricultural activities, requires us to embrace certain human resource challenges. We will protect all people involved in our value chain in terms of human and labor rights, and invest in human resources through training and adapted employee development programs.
Environment – As a company experiencing rapid change, and producing and trading agricultural products to help feed and clothe up to 450 million people worldwide, environmental concerns are at the core of our operational methods and business model. We will ensure that our operations maintain compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, and that they have the smallest possible environmental impact. We will target continuous improvement across a range of established environmental criteria. We must adapt solutions to challenges related to the diversity of our presence and of our activities around the world.
Partners – Sustainability is a key concern for our numerous business partners. We will actively participate, in partnership with all stakeholders, in the creation of sustainable value chains and the promotion of product safety in all commodities. We will also endeavor to build long-lasting relationships in order to be considered a first choice partner by customers, clients and financial institutions.
Community – Our various operations bring us into close contact with the communities in which we operate all over the world. We will continue to support and invest in development programs and initiatives in these communities, and ensure our operations and actions enable those communities to continue to develop. Regional priorities should be defined to correspond to local needs, and global priorities developed along the themes of food, agriculture and children.
LDC is driven by a set of shared values and a common purpose rooted in the principles and culture established by our founder more than 165 years ago. Today they continue to guide us and we remain committed to achieving sustainable growth through risk management and compliance with our ethical standards.
We have four values that express our shared understanding of what we believe, how we aim to behave and what we aspire to be as an organization: Humility, Commitment, Diversity and Entrepreneurship.
LDC is committed to serving its suppliers and customers through vigorous competition, efficiency, innovation and customer choice, always working to comply conscientiously with antitrust and competition laws applicable to its business.
Our Antitrust Compliance Policy is intended to help all LDC employees recognize the kinds of conduct that antitrust and competition laws address, and identify when they should seek guidance from the LDC Legal Department.
• Juice
Louis Dreyfus Company Suisse S.A. General Terms and Conditions 2020
• Oilseeds – Wittenberg – Germany
Louis Dreyfus Company Suisse S.A. – Wittenberg Oilseeds General Terms and Conditions 2020
Louis Dreyfus Company Suisse S.A. – Wittenberg Special Terms and Conditions for Purchase of Rapeseeds 2020
Human Rights & Environment Committees
LDC has established a Human Rights Committee and an Environmental Committee, as part of our sustainability governance structure.
Members are LDC senior leaders, including our CEO, signaling commitment from the highest level of the company, as well as occasional external invitees.
Addressing risks and compliance with applicable regulations is fundamental to the way we do business at LDC.
A team of experts helps managers at all levels of our business to address the many and complex risks inherent to our diversified portfolio and global operations.
We manage risk continuously, anticipating and responding to circumstances with the potential to impact our business.
Our skill in identifying and mitigating risks is central to our reputation as a trusted and industry-leading global business and partner.
Key Principles
• We manage risk as integral part of our business model, investing in risk management systems as a key competitive advantage
• We enforce our clear and prudent risk procedures rigorously on a daily basis, measuring and setting tight limits on risk exposure using several methods
• Our expert risk officers continually support the business to identify, quantify, monitor and mitigate risks
• High-level committees are in place to oversee and govern key risks, and risk limits are approved at the level of our Supervisory Board
LDC operates a multifaceted compliance and ethics program that is tailored to our diverse and complex global trade flows and operations. Our compliance officers enforce its principles through various methods, and ensure that employees are properly trained and aware of legislation affecting our business.
The program covers three areas:
• Regulatory Compliance, focused on training, policies and controls to ensure LDC’s activity involving exchange traded or other regulated instruments remains in compliance with the applicable rules and regulations
• Trade Compliance, focused on training, policies and controls to avoid any breach of our Code of Conduct and ethical standards as well as anti-corruption and sanctions laws and regulations
• Compliance Monitoring on our activities and transactions using a data-driven, risk-based approach, to ensure compliance with LDC policies and standards
Anti-corruption Measures
Accessing compliance anti-corruption policies through the Code of Conduct e-learning is compulsory for LDC employees. We assess corruption risks through four different mechanisms:
Transactional
LDC policies require employees to consult the compliance team prior to higher risk transactions.
Strategy Alignment
Compliance resources and priorities are re-allocated according to LDC’s strategic direction.
Ad-hoc Risk Assessment
Compliance officers conduct periodic reviews of higher risk activities or locations.
Monitoring
A dedicated team leverage artificial intelligence, data analytics and business intelligence to identify risks of anti-corruption policy breaches.
Seeking Advice & Raising Concerns
LDC has a related party transactions policy, which requires employees to communicate any conflicts of interests, which are then escalated for approval. Self-disclosure campaigns for employees are conducted in selected countries, with plans for global roll-out from 2023.
LDC has also implemented a confidential ethics hotline for reporting of any concerns relating to breach of ethical conduct, available to both employees and external third parties. Allegations regarding compliance are raised to the Board, and concerns around fraud activity are raised to the Audit Committee.
If you have a concern about the conduct of any LDC employee or anyone representing LDC, you may use LDC’s Ethics line, which is a secure and confidential method for reporting issues or concerns.
Committees comprising top company executives as well as Senior Heads of Platform, Region and Function, oversee and steer compliance and risk matters at LDC through regular or ad hoc meetings as needed.
Various committees ensure quantitative and qualitative risk monitoring. The Macro Committee covers all market related price risks, risk concentration and overall portfolio concentration. The Credit Committee covers credit, country, treasury, political and insurance risks. The Arbitration, Disputes & Litigation Committee covers all commercial disputes.
The Compliance & Internal Audit Committee is responsible for Regulatory Compliance and Trade Compliance, as well as Internal Audit.