Food Covenant calls for action

The parties within the Food Covenant call on companies in the food sector to take action. The results of the annual monitoring show that more and more companies in the sector subscribe to the importance of international corporate social responsibility. At the same time, companies are not yet sufficiently prepared for future legislation and they face major challenges. For example, companies have a better overview of suppliers and raw materials compared to the previous year, but they often cannot identify risks in the chain beyond the first supplier. All this can be read in the annual report 2020-2021.

Risks in the chain

To monitor progress in the area of due diligence, a self-assessment was carried out by the members of trade organisations CBL, FNLI and KNSV. A new, interactive online tool was used for the first time. This year, 119 companies participated in the monitoring, compared to 110 the second year. This year 44 companies participated for the first time. This shows that more and more companies are starting to work with the OECD guidelines, but also that it remains a challenge to keep companies involved.

Collective projects

Besides offering support, the covenant parties also work together on collective projects. For example, CBL and IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative have mapped out 42% of the total Dutch procurement of bananas for the living wage banana project. The aim of the project is to provide insight into the gap between the wage paid and the living wage, and to close at least 75% of that gap by 2025. In addition, FNV and CBL conducted an independent investigation into abuses in the Italian tomato chain. The study confirmed risks of human rights violations, such as exploitation and illegal labour. Together with its members, the CBL has drawn up an action plan to implement the recommendations in the report. In addition to the current projects, in the third year the covenant parties also started to explore new collective projects for various high-risk raw materials, which will be further developed in the fourth year.

View the annual report 2020-2021
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