The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative’s (SAI) Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) addresses the factors impacting sustainable agriculture worldwide, including sugar beet farming. In sustainable beet sugar production, pesticide and fertilizer levels are optimized, soil health is maintained fostering agricultural efficiency, carbon sinks are protected and energy use is optimized.
SAI Platform launched the Farm Sustainability Assessment 3.0 (FSA) to support the production of sustainable agricultural raw materials worldwide and has partnered with the UN’s International Trade Center to offer practical solutions for farmers and other stakeholders to benchmark, assess and communicate their sustainability practices along the supply chain.
Following successful completion of the European beet sugar project, Barry Callebaut has teamed up with other sugar buyers and SAI Platform to set up the SUBERU project. SUBERU aims to support Russian beet sugar suppliers to implement sustainable practices. The project was successfully closed in 2020 with all major Russian Beet Sugar suppliers having completed a successful FSA verification audit.
In 2020, a similar project was launched in Turkey where Barry Callebaut has also teamed up with other sugar buyers and the SAI Platform. The project is still ongoing with the first Turkish sugar supplier reaching FSA silver level in 2021.
Along with the inauguration of Barry Callebaut’s new factory in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2021, Barry Callebaut has teamed up with the largest Beet Sugar producer in Serbia Sunoko to work on sustainable beet sugar. The goal is to convert 100% of the supply to SAI FSA 3.0 verification, reaching at least silver level. The project is expected to be implemented by the end of 2022.
Barry Callebaut also collaborated with a leading supplier in North America to successfully implement a joint SAI/Field to Market Audit to verify a level of sustainable performance in the US supply chain. This audit was the first of its kind to bring together two sustainability platforms in US sustainable agriculture. We are now exploring opportunities to support farmers in amplifying soil health to create more resilient sugar beet supply chains and reduce our greenhouse gas footprint.
