June 18, 2024
CP Foods subsidiary, Bunge jointly tested blockchain-enabled traceability platform for sustainable soy
Bunge and Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Company Limited (BKP), a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods), jointly tested a traceability platform for sustainable soy using blockchain technology, CP Foods announced this month.
To date, three shipments totaling 185,000 metric tons of deforestation-free soybean meal have been loaded in Brazil and are heading to Thailand, which allows CP Foods to trace the soybeans from farm origin, processing and transportation to delivery at the destination. Three more ships carrying an additional 180,000 metric tons of soybean meal are expected to deliver their shipment by next month.
These 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, meeting a cutoff date determined in the sourcing standard developed by CP Foods.
In addition to compliance with different socio-environmental criteria, the platform also offers customers access to information including the carbon footprint of the volumes sold and whether a farm has adopted regenerative agricultural practices.
BKP stated that the company is working to connect blockchain-based traceability solutions with suppliers, partners and farmers worldwide, ensuring transparency across its supply chain.
"In the initial stages of our partnership with Bunge, we have shipped the first vessels of soybean meal (that are) verified deforestation-free, fully traceable from farms to their destination in Thailand," said Paisarn Kruawongvanich, chief executive officer of Bangkok Produce Merchandising. "This marks a significant milestone for Charoen Pokphand Foods to achieve 100% deforestation-free supply chains by 2025."
"Adding a layer of blockchain technology improves the transparency in end-to-end traceability that Bunge has been doing for some years," said Rossano de Angelis Jr., Bunge's Vice President 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."
Both companies have been collaborating since October 2023 when they announced a partnership to develop technical, commercial and operational feasibility studies for a blockchain traceability solution to set up a sustainable and digitally integrated supply chain. The agreement involves oilseeds and their by-products sourced by Bunge in Brazil; these are destined for several Asian countries, where BKP and CP Foods produce and sell feed and food.
Ongoing tests aim to automate the connection between Bunge and BKP's supplier management and socio-environmental monitoring systems with a digital platform. This will enable a customer to monitor and receive product traceability data, in addition to accessing socio-environmental information from source farms. Blockchain ensures increased reliability, as it makes data immutable once it enters the platform.
For Bunge's Distribution Director in Asia, Mohit Purbey, the strong relationship Bunge has built with CP Foods over the years was key to the project.
"It is also an example of how Bunge can create tailored solutions to help our customers fulfill their own sustainability commitments," he said.
Since the end of 2022, Bunge's supplier monitoring system covers more than 16,000 farms (with a combined 20 million hectares) in South America and features state-of-the-art satellite technology that is capable of identifying changes in land use and soybean planting on each monitored property.
In Brazil, Bunge monitors its direct suppliers in areas at risk of deforestation and is expecting to fully cover indirect suppliers in 2025.
More than 97% of soy sourced by Bunge in the country is deforestation- and conversion-free, bringing the company closer to its goal of achieving deforestation-free chains in 2025.
- CP Foods