 | Where is the end of collaboration? 'Where does precompetitive collaboration add value and where does competition do a better job for sustainable innovation?'
This
interesting question was brought up in a recent external meeting and
challenged my basic assumptions. The challenger (from an NGO) told me
that he preferred to work with a company than with a representing
organization. "I like to develop a competitive advantage", he
said. |
It
made me realize that I believe SAI Platform's task is different from
that. We aim to address sustainability in the mainstream agriculture
sector, not create a new niche in the marketplace.
This can only be done if we are able to stay within the pre-competitive arena and in fact not too close to marketing. I do hope, however, that we can still count on the energy that usually results from competition.
Enjoy
this rich newsletter, including not only updates on our activities and
collaborative efforts, but also a brand new SAI Platform blog and
articles about two exciting farmer engagement programs. Also, join me in
welcoming our 80th member!
 Peter Erik Ywema, SAI Platform, General Manager |
Advisory Council Corner | 
| As
SAI Platform, we attach great importance to recommendations and advice
given by our Advisory Council members, each of whom are experienced
experts in the field of sustainable agriculture. In each newsletter we
give the floor to one of our advisors. For this edition of
the newsletter we interviewed Patrick Wrixon. Patrick not only runs a
mixed sheep and arable farm in the Welsh Marches, he is also active
within LEAF, president of EISA and -most recently- is the latest
addition to SAI Platform's Advisory Council. Read more. |
|
| SAI Platform developments |
Outcome of SAI Platform Strategy Day: increased focus on implementation projects During
a strategy day on September 8th in London, SAI Platform's EXCO members
and Working Group chairs discussed the organization's future direction.
The context and starting point for the meeting were the progress made
and challenges remaining in sustainable agriculture, the rapid growth of
the Platform, and the wish to accelerate an effective road to achieving
the organization's vision. |
SAI Platform membership survey: 76% of our members have a sustainable sourcing strategy for agricultural raw materials Earlier this year, SAI Platform conducted a survey among its members on their sustainable sourcing objectives and practices.
About
70% of our members responded to the survey, resulting in an excellent,
high-level picture on the sustainable sourcing journey of our
members. |
SAI
Platform meets with its Advisory Board at the EXPO in Milan - and will
also hold a stakeholder meeting on Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) During the final month of the 2015 EXPO 'Feeding the planet, energy for life' in Milan,
SAI Platform will meet with its Advisory Council to discuss key recent
developments in sustainable agriculture and future strategies,
priorities and roles for SAI Platform. |
SAI Platform's Seminar & General Assembly 2016 "Sustainable Agriculture - Why bother?: Leading solutions from Ireland and across the globe" 11-14 April 2016, Dublin, Ireland Come
and join us in Dublin at our annual 'must attend' event which offers
excellent networking, sharing and learning opportunities, through field
trips, interactive meetings and a workshop with farmers and high level
speakers in a welcoming Irish environment. This is a
global event, and thus we expect members from North and Latin America,
Asia, Europe and beyond to participate. The Irish example will not only
serve as an inspiration for driving and implementing responsible
agricultural practices, but also as a basis for discussing alternative
approaches that work in different countries around the world. |
 Over the Hedge - the new SAI Platform Blog 'Agriculture on the water agenda': Reflecting on World Water Week by Ulrike Sapiro, Sustainability Director, The Coca-Cola Company and President of SAI Platform Earlier
this month, Stockholm closed another World Water Week, six days of
tightly stacked panel debates, workshops, lectures and events around
water. The role of agriculture in water management has traditionally
been discussed on the periphery of the Stockholm water agenda. And
vice-versa, water is not usually in the mainstream of the global farming
debate, often because there is no 'one size-fits all' solution. Read the entire blog. |
Increased
'collaboration' is the key word in our work. Most of our tools such as
Principles & Practices, The Sustainable Sourcing Guide and FSA,
serve to create a common 'language' to better understand each other. But
these are merely tools to support the real activity and improvement at
farm level, and to make this happen, collaborating is essential. |
How is SAI Platform collaborating? And who with? We
could give a prize to the person who can tell what acronyms like AIM
Progress, UNGC, GlobalGAP, FtM, CFA, ITC, CGF, GS1, TSC, BIER, and many
others stand for. Some of you would surely be able to tell us. But, who
can tell exactly what they do, what their mission is, who they serve?
SAI Platform has connections with all of them. |
The Times features Report 'Future of Agriculture & Food'; including SAI Platform opinion piece by Peter-Erik Ywema With
articles written by leading journalists such as Mike Scott (The
Financial Times, The Guardian), this publication elevates the food
sustainability discussion from the niche press into the UK's most
widely-read business newspaper. |
Promoting and Partnering for Sustainable Agriculture |
Global Sustainability Forum, Dublin, November 9-10 2015 Affiliate
member, Bordbia, is holding its first Global Sustainability Forum on
November 9-10 in partnership with SAI Platform and WWF. Its aim is to
create a forum to discuss objectives, targets, solutions and progress
but also to identify needs towards the sustainable production of food.
Members of SAI Platform are encouraged to participate in this
'invitation only' event. |
Good
progress on turning the Declaration of Abu Dhabi into reality - Smart
new functionality allows for automatic creation of a common set of
agricultural practices
The
Declaration of Abu Dhabi - launched in 2014 by SAI Platform, Global GAP
and International Trade Center - aims at developing and adopting a
common set of good agricultural practices as well as creating
transparency in food supply chains. Since,
we have worked on turning the Declaration's commitments - to which 50
organizations have signed up to already - into reality. |
A
water solution for Spanish strawberry farmers - new video showing
sustainable water management by farmers in practice, and how farmers
benefit from this Spain
is a leading producer of fresh strawberries in Europe. About 95% of
these strawberries are produced in the Huelva region in southern Spain -
close to one of the world's most valued wetlands, Doñana, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. Strawberries do not only provide an important
source of income for farmers in the region, they are also a thirsty
crop. |
Farming Tools - New Advances |
Engagement with farmers is a crucial dimension of working to promote sustainable agriculture. At
SAI Platform we will continuously share examples of practical tools or
approaches which are helping to engage with specific groups of farmers
for different crops. In this issue we feature WeFarm which allows users to ask questions about farming and share useful farming tips by sending a basic SMS and SenseMaker, a powerful tool giving insights into the inclusion of smallholder farmers into modern markets. |
SAI Platform Training & Events |
WEBINAR: Introduction to Farm Sustainability Assessment September 28, 2015 at 15:00 PM CEST SAI
Platform will provide an overview of what the FSA is, how it can be
used, and provide example projects where it is already being
implemented. |
WEBINAR: An update on FSA activities, September 30, 2015 at 13:00 PM CEST We will provide an update on the FSA committees within SAI Platform, and an update on implementation projects. This webinar is open only to SAI Platform members. |
Juice CSR Platform Seminar, Antwerp, October 9 2015 For
the third year in a row, the Juice CSR Platform is organising a CSR
seminar alongside the most important event of the year for the juice
sector worldwide - the Juice Summit.
|
Global Sustainability Forum, Dublin, November 9-10 2015 Affiliate
member, Bordbia, is holding its first Global Sustainability Forum on
November 9-10 in partnership with SAI Platform and WWF. Its aim is to
create a forum to discuss objectives, targets, solutions and progress
but also to identify future needs for the sustainable production of
food. Members of SAI Platform are encouraged to participate in this
'invitation only' event. |
SAI Platform/IMD Masterclass on Sustainable Sourcing, November 25-26 2015, Lausanne, Switzerland This
exciting and interactive training and learning opportunity helps
participants develop realistic and practicable implementation approaches
to meet companies' sustainable sourcing targets for agricultural raw
materials. |
| |  | Arable and Vegetable Crops The
group is actively supporting several SAI Platform projects: FSA
implementation projects, Sustainable Rice, and the Sustainable Sugar
Beet Project. |
|
Beef The group's most recent meeting took place at Quality Meat Scotland in Edinburgh, focusing on the Beef FSA development.Read more. |  |
|
 | Coffee
The
EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) project has consumed much of
the group's time in supporting the efforts of the European Coffee
Federation in implementing a pilot project. Read more. |
|
Dairy The
group had its September meeting in Auburn, NY State, USA, where members
visited farms and the Cayuga Marketing processing plant. |  |
|
 | Fruit For information on the Doñana Strawberry project, see a summary here. |
|
 | Farm Sustainability Assessment FSA
continues to be adopted by an increasing number of companies, for more
and more commodities, in an ever growing number of countries, and is
being used as a clear method for communicating about sustainable
agriculture in supply chains. |
|
Water The
committee has two key pillars of work; the first one being to support
members in their collaborative efforts in a number of watersheds
globally, and the second to take stock of the most relevant and current
tools to manage watersheds. |  |
|
| Unilever - sustainability driving business growth
This
film shows how Unilever's Supply Chain has invested in one female
entrepreneur, who set up a tomato processing plant to source from local
smallholder farmers. The farmers tell us that due to the sustainable
agriculture training and guarantee of business, their yields have
doubled or tripled, as have their incomes.
|
|
| Redefining GFAR's roles through Collective Action
SAI
Platform is on the Steering Committee of GFAR - the Global Forum for
Agricultural Research. This recent blog post from them highlights their
increasing focus on collective, multi-stakeholder action in areas
including climate, youth involvement in agriculture, gender and capacity
building.Read the blog |
|
| Added value from growing sustainable milling wheat
In
the Netherlands Agrifirm Plant and Koopmans Koninklijke Meelfabrieken
BV are working together on a Skylark Foundation project to bring milling
wheat grown sustainably by Skylark growers to the market. |
|
| European Beet Sugar Partnership to have transformational effect on European crop farming The
European Sugar Beet industry, represented by the beet growers (CIBE),
the processors (CEFS) and the sector's trade union (EFFAT) launched the
European Beet Sugar Partnership (BSSP) with a stakeholder meeting on
September 9th at the Milan Expo. Read more. |
|
| SAI Platform welcomes four new members |
|
| Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) is
Ireland's
leading dairy company, annually processing 1.8 billion litres of milk
into a range of ingredients for export to more than 60 countries.
|
|
| Kerry is a leader in providing taste and nutrition solutions to the food, pharma and beverage sector and a prominent supplier of added value brands and customer branded foods to the Irish and UK markets. |
|
| Louis Dreyfus Commodities is
a global merchandizer of commodities and processor of agricultural
goods, originating, processing and transporting approximately 80
million tons of commodities around the world annually. |
|
| Migros (Federation of Migros Cooperatives) is the number one in the Swiss retail sector and also has an industrial group (M-Industry). |
|
|  | |
