Sao Paulo - October 2023 - Bunge (NYSE: BG), one of the world's leading agribusiness and food companies, and Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Company Limited (BKP), a subsidiary company of the Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CPF), a world leader in food, have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of a blockchain solution for the traceability of soy and deforestation-free products. The agreement involves grain sourced by Bunge in Brazil destined for several countries in Asia, where BKP and CPF produce and sell feed and food.
This partnership will enable both companies to carry out technical, commercial, and operational feasibility studies to build a sustainable supply chain and integration of digitization. The agreement is aiming to transform traceability data from the field to final costumers
Mr. Paisarn Kruawongvanich, Chief Executive Officer of Bangkok Produce Merchandising PCL (BKP) said blockchain technology will improve Agro-industry and Food Business Group of Charoen Pokphan Group's food supply chain traceability to be even more transparent and ensures product quality and safety for our customers. The agreement with global business partners aligns with our commitment to achieve driving a net zero supply chain in 2050.
"Tracing of raw materials around the globe including soy back to their sources is key to ensuring that both direct and indirect sourced raw material does not come from encroachment areas or areas of deforestation," Kruawongvanich added.
"Bunge strives to be the preferred sustainable solutions partner for producers and customers. The partnership with BKP reflects our business vision that has technology as an important tool. Over the past few years, we have built a robust social and environmental verification system that includes advanced traceability and monitoring of our suppliers. We believe that together with our customers, we will build sustainable supply chains with an additional layer of reliability guaranteed by blockchain," explains Rossano de Angelis Jr, Bunge's Vice President of Agribusiness for South America.
The monitoring currently carried out by Bunge covers more than 16,000 farms or up to 20 million hectares in South America and relies on state-of-the-art satellite technology, capable of identifying changes in land use and soybean planting on each monitored property. In Brazil, Bunge currently monitors all of its direct supply network in areas subject to deforestation and is moving toward fully covering the indirect network by 2025. More than 97% of the volume of soy purchased by Bunge is free of verified deforestation and conversion, which gets the company closer to its goal.By involving two global companies, the scale of the initiative has the potential to raise standards of transparency in the Brazilian soy value chain and increase the confidence of end consumers in soy-derived products around the world.
Through the memorandum, both companies also commit to discussing the possibility of future collaboration on other services, such as exploring opportunities for further integration among systems with a focus on enabling real-time data transfer, measuring the carbon footprint of the volumes traded with BKP and improving the digital traceability solution to be compatible with sustainability certification standards, such as the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), and the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC).
Source: Charoen Pokphand Foods
