Bunge and CP Foods explore blockchain technology to advance soybean traceability

12 Jun 2024 --- Agribusiness and food company Bunge and CP Foods subsidiary Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Company (BKP) have leveraged blockchain tech to test a traceability platform for sustainable soy. The move aims to foster greater transparency in shipments of deforestation-free soybeans.

Up to now, three shipments weighing 185,000 metric tons of deforestation-free soybean meal have been loaded in Brazil and are headed to Thailand. This allows CP Foods to trace the soybeans from farm origin, processing, transportation and delivery to the destination, notes the company.

Three more vessels carrying an additional 180,000 metric tons of soybean meal are expected for shipment by next month.

“In the initial stages of our partnership with Bunge, we have shipped the first vessels of soybean meal verified deforestation-free, fully traceable from farms to their destination in Thailand for CP Foods. This marks a significant milestone for Charoen Pokphand Foods to achieve 100% deforestation-free supply chains by 2025,” says Paisarn Kruawongvanich, CEO of BKP.

BKP is working to connect blockchain-based traceability solutions with suppliers, partners and farmers worldwide, ensuring transparency across its supply chain, he adds.

The companies have shipped nearly 185,000 metric tons of deforestation-free soybean meal from Brazil to Thailand (Image credit: Bunge). The shipped products comply with Bunge’s and BKP’s socio-environmental supplier verification protocols and were grown in high-priority regions with zero deforestation since 2020, aligning with the cut-off date determined in the sourcing standard developed by CP Foods.

Enhancing product traceability
The ongoing tests target the automation of the connection between Bunge and BKP’s supplier management and socio-environmental monitoring systems with a digital platform, highlights Bunge.

“This enables the customer to monitor and receive product traceability data, in addition to accessing socio-environmental information from the sourced farms. The blockchain technology ensures an additional layer of reliability, as it makes data immutable once it enters the platform.”

“Adding a layer of blockchain technology improves the transparency in end-to-end traceability that Bunge has been doing for some years,” says Rossano de Angelis Jr., Bunge’s VP of Agribusiness in South America.

“This ability to increase end-consumer confidence in soy projects is only possible thanks to the robust supplier’s socio-environmental verification and monitoring system that we have structured over the last decade, which uniquely positions us to provide the connection of proven sustainable products with markets where the demand for them is increasing.”

Bunge and CP Foods have been collaborating since October last year, when they announced a partnership to develop technical, commercial and operational feasibility studies for a blockchain traceability solution to build a sustainable and digitally integrated supply chain. The agreement involves oilseeds and their by-products sourced by Bunge in Brazil, bound for several Asian countries, where BKP and CP Foods produce and sell feed and food.

Soybean supply chains have often been criticized due to deforestation concerns (Image credit: Bunge).The platform also offers customers access to information including the carbon footprint of the volumes sold and whether the farm has adopted regenerative agricultural practices.

Deforestation-free supply chains
Soy supply chains have often been criticized for the F&B industry’s failure to tackle deforestation. In a recent report released by the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFi), 881 companies disclosed their impact on at least one commodity supply chain. 

Only around half (445) claimed they were progressing toward deforestation — and conversion-free supply chains.

The EU deforestation regulation (EUDR), which will take effect on December 30 this year, requires companies to ensure that products sold in the EU have not led to deforestation or forest degradation.

Some industry efforts in combating deforestation include ADM’s recent shipment of its first vessels of verified, fully traceable soybeans from the US to Europe, which it intends to expand to other key locations across North America in the 2024 growing season.

Moreover, FoodChainID recently unveiled a set of EUDR services in light of the looming compliance deadline for F&B companies. With its new due diligence services, the firm aims to “serve as an independent verifier of deforestation-free claims for the commodities in the scope of the law.”

By Insha Naureen