Agribusiness development and trade

Sustainable sourcing

Agribusiness development and trade - Sustainable sourcing
Image: via Flickr (by: Berlin School of Coffee)

Sustainable sourcing concerns the sourcing of agricultural produce that on the one hand minimises negative environmental impact and on the other hand aims at including local producers in a socially and economically responsible way.

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A scheme and training manual on good agricultural practices (GAP) for fruits and vegetables
Published by FAO,
This publication by FAO provides good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fruits and vegetables during on-farm production and post-production processes resulting in safe agricultural products, ensuring a safe food supply. This publication comprises two volumes: Volume 1 documents the entire scheme and Volume 2 covers a training package on this scheme. »
A shared approach to performance measurement: Common indicators and metrics
Published by Sustainable Food Lab,
This paper presents an aligned yet customizable framework of indicators for measuring farm-level sustainability in smallholder agricultural supply chains. These indicators are proposed primarily in the context of performance measurement, but can also be useful for more in-depth impact evaluation studies. The ideas presented here are drawn from recent fieldwork of food and beverage companies, standards organizations, NGOs, and development agencies, and were synthesized as part of a community of practice led and facilitated by the Sustainable Food Lab. »
Balancing detail and scale in assessing transparency to improve the governance of agricultural commodity supply chains
Published by IOPscience,
In this article in the Environmental Research Letters, a complementary approach to existing approaches of assessing the sustainability of commodity supply chains is introduced. This approach can help provide actionable information, for example to improve sourcing and production practices, without requiring costly dedicated tracking systems for each individual supply chain. »
The OECD-FAO guidance for responsible agricultural supply chains
Published by OECD & FAO,
This guide by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has been developed to help enterprises observe existing standards for responsible business conduct along agricultural supply chains. These standards include the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems, and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. »
Sustainable global agrifood supply chains: Exploring the barriers
Published by Journal of Industrial Ecology,
The article investigates the factors that make businesses postpone integrating the performance dimension of sustainability in global agrifood supply chains. Based on literature-based conceptual reasoning, the article conceptualizes a double company lens distinguishing between substantial supply chain management and mere public relations endeavors as a major obstacle for businesses pursuing comprehensive supply chain performance in global agrifood chains. »
Drivers influencing farmer decisions for adopting organic or conventional coffee management practices
Published by Food Policy Journal,
This article investigates which drivers influence farmer's decision-making on adopting organic or conventional coffee management practices. The authors use the case of Santader, Colombia, one of the world’s most important producers of Arabica coffee, where both conventional and organic schemes of management are used. The results suggests that social identity of coffee growers, the influence of coffee institutions, attitudes about management practices, and social relations of production, all play an important role in the process of decision making. »
The effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation
Published by Food Policy journal,
This article analyses the effect of specialty coffee certification on income diversification of smallholders and questions the benefits of this certification for them. Smallholder coffee producers are responsible for 80% of global coffee production and need farm certification to access specialty coffee markets. Although rural households are known to depend on more than agricultural production alone, the literature on specialty coffee and certification has rather narrowly focused on coffee income and production. In this study, broader impacts are explicitly taken into account. »
Sustainable evaluation and verification in supply chains: Aligning and leveraging accountability to stakeholders
Published by Journal of Operations Management,
This article in the Journal of Operations Management, synthesizes a model that proposes how firms might address accountability for sustainability issues in their supply chain. At its core, the construct of sustainable evaluation and verification (SEV) captures three interrelated dimensions: inclusivity, scope, and disclosure. These dimensions characterize how supply chain processes might identify key measures, collect and process data, and finally, verify materiality, reliability and accuracy of any data and resulting information. »
Sustainable sourcing of global agricultural raw materials: Assessing gaps in key impact and vulnerability issues and indicators
Published by PLOS One,
For this research article at PlOS One, a comprehensive list of sustainable sourcing issues was collated in order to better structure the complex relationships and assess any gaps. The issues were pulled from the following three perspectives: major global sustainability assessments, sustainability communications from global food companies, and conceptual frameworks of sustainable livelihoods from academic publications. These terms were then integrated... »
Principles & practices for sustainable dairy farming 2015
Published by SAI Platform,
This document by SAI Platform provides a set of Principles and suggested Practices for Sustainable Dairy Farming for the mainstream market in all regions of the world. It is designed to be dynamic and revised regularly on the basis of new practical experience and knowledge generation. It is meant to be ‘delivered’ and used with specific guidelines and practical tools relevant to local innovations and prevailing conditions. »
Interactive practitioner’s guide for sustainable sourcing of agricultural raw materials
Published by SAI Platform,
This SAI Platform practitioner's guide is a reference manual for companies seeking to source their agricultural raw materials sustainably. It is intended for any food and beverage company buying its agricultural raw materials from farmers and farmer organisations directly, or indirectly through supplier companies. »
The 10 principles of food industry sustainability
Published by The International Journal of Food Science & Technology ,
This book identifies the most pressing sustainability priorities across the entire food supply chain and shows, with tools and examples, how producers, processors, packers, distributors, marketers and retailers all play a role in advancing improvement. »
Advancing health and well-being in food systems: strategic opportunities for funders
Published by Global Alliance for the Future of Food,
The working group of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food commissioned four scoping papers (PDF), one for each of its strategies, from cutting-edge experts in the field of food systems policy and practice. The papers focus on key recommendations for action by funders to promote positive systemic change in food systems and to... »
Indicators of global sustainable sourcing as a set covering problem: an integrated approach to sustainability.
Published by Ecosystem Health and Sustainability Journal,
This paper in the Ecosystem Health and Sustainability Journal, presents a new method to systematically link issues and indicators under two conceptual frameworks of sustainability in order to enable quantitative analyses. The authors demonstrate this approach with a specific use case focused on the global sourcing of agricultural products. »
Oxfam’s agricultural sourcing scorecard: food and beverage companies must do more to tackle climate change
Published by Supply Management magazine,
Oxfam’s ‘Behind the Brands’ assesses the companies’ policies and commitments to improve food security and sustainability. It looks at how well they perform on issues relating to transparency, women, workers, farmers, land, water, and climate. In the latest ‘scorecard’ of March 2015, which rates the agricultural sourcing policies of the top 10 international food and... »
How can Danone Ecosystem sustainable sourcing innovation be scaled up?
Published by Danone,
This issue of the Down to Earth blog of Danone is about sustainable sourcing by preserving natural resources, strengthening the company’s stakeholders and global ecosystems, and ensuring that it is still able to accomplish its mission in the most sustainable way possible in the future. To reflect on these issues, Danoners and stakeholders gathered for... »
Cocoa barometer 2015: chocolate too cheap to be sustainable
Published by Cocoa Barometer,
The Cocoa Barometer 2015 (PDF) is published and funded by the members of the Barometer Consortium: FNV Mondiaal, Hivos, Solidaridad, and the VOICE Network (Oxfam Novib, Oxfam Wereldwinkels, ABVV/Horval, Berne Declaration, Stop The Traffik, and Südwind Institut). The cocao barometer was launched at the chocoa conference in March 2015. The main conclusion from the report... »
Oxfam-Unilever ‘project Sunrise’: enhancing livelihoods while strengthening supply chains
Published by Oxfam / Unilever,
Unilever and Oxfam collaborated in the project ‘Sunrise’, which brought together the development aims of Oxfam with the sustainable sourcing efforts of Unilever. Together they explored how to build sustainable smallholder-based supply chains that could grow its business while reducing poverty for marginalised communities. The project studied pilot projects producing dehydrated vegetables, tea, tomatoes and... »
Coffee Barometer 2014: building demand for sustainable coffee
Published by Hivos,
The Coffee Barometer 2014 (PDF) is a bi-annual overview of developments in the coffee industry. This joint publication of Hivos, Solidaridad, Oxfam Novib, IUCN-NL and WWF discusses recent developments in the coffee market, standards and certification and provides an overview of case studies advocating adaptation strategies. Ecological, economic and social aspects of coffee production, climate... »
Doing business with nature: opportunities from natural capital
The University of Cambridge and the Natural Capital Leaders Platform published the report, Doing Business with Nature: opportunities from natural capital (PDF), which aims to engage industry in a review of the global challenges around water, biodiversity and soil and showcases the extent to which companies are working together to develop new interventions in the... »
Netherlands Food Partnership

The F&BKP is continuing in Netherlands Food Partnership: find more knowledge & expertise at the NFP website.