Environment

BRF achieves 100% traceability of direct grain suppliers

BRF, one of the largest food companies in the world, reached the 100% traceability mark for its direct suppliers of grains from the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. Acting sustainably and using innovative technologies in the search for a deforestation-free chain with less impact on biodiversity, the Company takes another important step in its sustainability journey and commitment to being Net Zero.

To obtain this result, the company invested in the implementation of new technologies aimed at guaranteeing grain traceability. “Through geospatial monitoring, our robust Smart Center, a data intelligence center based on artificial intelligence, in addition to the focused and disciplined performance of our team, we were able to guarantee an efficient process of traceability and socio-environmental monitoring of our suppliers, positively impacting the business”, explains Gilson Ross, director of operations and commodities purchasing at BRF.

Just two years after announcing, in 2020, its commitment to guarantee 100% traceability of grain suppliers from the Amazon and Cerrado by 2025, BRF already has 100% traceability and socio-environmental monitoring of direct suppliers. In indirect terms, the Company advanced from 45% in 2022 to 75%* in the first quarter of 2023 – volume of grains received between January and March 2023 – reinforcing progress in this agenda.

“In order to increase transparency and reinforce our ambitions, we have established global commitments that cut across aspects of the EESG agenda. Among them, ensuring the traceability of grains acquired from the Amazon and Cerrado, associated with the Company’s objective of being Net Zero”, says Raquel Ogando, director of Reputation and Sustainability at BRF.

Sustainable Policies

In its Sustainable Grain Purchasing Policy, BRF establishes guidelines that its employees and grain business partners must follow, based, for example, on current and applicable environmental legislation, compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code, preservation of biodiversity and local communities, in addition to non-commercialization in areas embargoed by bodies such as IBAMA, ICMbio, among others.

Still in line with its commitment, the Company launched the ‘Sustainable Grain Supplier Booklet’, which aims to provide more clarity to the company’s grain monitoring criteria and reinforce the importance of engaging commodity business partners with sustainability precepts . The initiative is aligned with BRF’s Sustainable Grain Purchasing Policy and Sustainability Policy, based on its fundamental commitments to Integrity, Quality and Safety.

“Based on our policies, data and socio-environmental analyses, we are able to promote a strategic approach, focusing on sustainability in the acquisition of inputs from our suppliers, thus contributing to a chain free of deforestation and preservation and less impact on biodiversity”, adds the executive.