July 24, 2020

Marfrig to achieve deforestation-free production chain in ten years

Marfrig has announced on July 23 the Marfrig Verde+ Plan, whose mission is to ensure that 100% of the company's production chain is sustainable and free of deforestation over the next ten years.

The plan, designed in partnership with Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), a private foundation which aims to accelerate sustainability in the main agro-commodity chains, was unveiled to investors, clients, cattle producers and environmentalists in Brazil and abroad during an online event in which key company executives, as well as representatives from the financial markets and civil society participated.

Over the next ten years, Marfrig will invest R$500 million (US$96 million) on sustainability actions.

"We are absolutely convinced that there will be a promising future only for those who embrace sustainability," said Marcos Molina dos Santos, founder and chairman of the board of directors of Marfrig. "We are the pioneers in our sector and, once again, we want to encourage the entire chain to make a commitment to sustainable development and to preserve our forests."

Based on the production-conservation-inclusion approach, the plan envisages closer connection with the supply chain that goes beyond business relations, thus improving its livelihood while mitigating the risks of deforestation. Several actions will be simultaneous and interconnected, and involve networking, partnerships with civil society organisations and academia, as well as jointly working with Brazil's Prosecution Office. The public can monitor the pace of achievement of targets through transparent platforms.

By 2022, Marfrig will have adapted all its systems to control the supply chain and mitigate risks.

Later this year, the company will launch the Map for Mitigation of Risks of Indirect Suppliers, which will integrate the maps of native vegetation with the maps of livestock production. This will enable Marfrig to determine the areas of higher or lower risk of suppression of biodiversity.

Also, by the end of 2020, a satellite-based geomonitoring system currently used for the Amazon will be adapted to monitor the Cerrado biome as well.

Between 2022 and 2025, Marfrig will lead the programme to readmit embargoed producers, enabling them to to once again meet the company's sustainability criteria.

Marfrig will also launch a programme involving a technical support network, as well as the intensification and restoration of biodiversity through improved pasture, genetic improvement and animal nutrition.

By 2025, the goal is to achieve full traceability of Marfrig's supply chain in the Amazon. Also, in the next ten years, the company should replicate it at the Cerrado and other biomes, thus achieving zero deforestation by 2030.

Marfrig will also interact with other links in the production chain to help the programme gain scale and momentum.

"We believe that supporting the development of a long-term programme for the livestock chain in Brazil is ensuring that beef production at the farms remains competitive on the back of robust inclusive systems that help improve the lives of producers through adequate technological packages, which include advanced genetics and availability of fair credit," said Daniela Mariuzzo, executive director of IDH and the Sustainable Landscapes Program in Latin America.

"The results of all these will be higher productivity, income generation for families and less need to convert new areas of native vegetation for pasture."

- Marfrig