New video showcasing the growing importance of regenerative agriculture and the role of partnerships to build resilience in the supply-chain.
Reflections on COP30
The COP30 Summit ended last week and, overall, it was a mixed picture. There are reasons to be optimistic, with the summit seeing a surge in climate-related investment, particularly around clean energy, with funds also mobilised to support developing countries adapt to climate change impacts, and for other practical solutions such as for tropical forest preservation services. But for many the summit fell short, with insufficient urgency, concerns around representation, and the absence of a roadmap outlining how society will transition over time away from fossil fuel and stop deforestation.
It’s right that the food system, a major contributor to global emissions, featured prominently in the COP30 programme as one of six priority areas. Arguably, this shift is long overdue. The science is clear that reducing carbon emissions at every stage of food cultivation, production, distribution and consumption is essential, and all players in the food system will need to contribute to reducing the environmental impact.
The importance of regenerative agriculture – farming practices that restore land, support ecosystems, and capture carbon – was also prominent in the summit programme, both in the untapped decarbonisation opportunity it presents, but also its fundamental role in enabling food security.
Climate change and food insecurity
Food security is a growing concern. The climate crisis is making it harder for farmers to produce food at the scale needed to meet the needs of a growing global population. Extreme temperatures, for instance, can cause heat stress and dehydration in crops, increasing the presence of pests, impacting soil health and ecosystems. The result? Smaller crop yields and, in some cases, crop failure.
The societal impacts are clear: empty supermarket shelves, increased food costs, and worsened health inequalities. During a cost-of-living crisis, with food inflation outpacing wage growth in most markets, it’s understandable that many consumers are prioritising feeding their family over ensuring the products they buy are sustainably sourced. Times like this only highlight the importance of sourcing products that are sustainably produced at a price point that doesn’t force customers to choose between the two.
Business implications for the food industry
For food and drink producers, who rely on natural resources to feed people, the implications of climate change are also far-reaching. Increasingly, businesses in our sector recognise the direct risk the climate crisis poses to their ability to source, operate, recruit, and sell. There is growing acceptance that climate must be prioritised in enterprise risk management, and I see daily evidence of increased appetite from Tate & Lyle’s customers to partner on solutions to build a more resilient supply chain to the impacts of climate change. Our new video addresses this topic and sets out how Tate & Lyle’s is taking action to build supply chain resilience.
From ambition to action: Scaling regenerative agriculture
For sustainability-minded businesses, the Paris Climate Agreement laid the foundations and now we’re in the implementation phase, with a shift in the corporate landscape from ambition to action. At Tate & Lyle, we’ve prioritised regenerative agriculture as our biggest opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint and support customer ambitions, launching programmes in the US, China and now in France focused on our two main raw materials: corn and stevia.
Our approach to regenerative agriculture has always involved close collaboration with our value chain and leading global agriculture experts. We measure success in emissions reductions, alongside other environmental key performance indicators, but also in greater resilience in thriving rural communities better equipped to safeguard their farming futures. Our programme retention rate of >90% in the US and in China demonstrates the farmer buy-in we’ve achieved since inception. I put this down to meeting farmers where they are and taking a science-driven approach to demonstrate impact: better quality crops, higher yields, greater financial security.
Tate & Lyle’s new European programme
We believe that having shared goals with supply chain partners – up and downstream – is central to a sustainable business model. We’re part of a collaborative ecosystem responding positively to the shared challenge at our door. It’s in this spirit that we’ve developed our new regenerative programme in Europe, with our partners Regrow Ag and three of our biggest corn suppliers.
France is an agricultural powerhouse and one of our key procurement areas, supplying corn used in many of our speciality corn-based food ingredients. When, in 2022, extreme heat affected harvests across France and beyond, our corn supply chain was affected, and like others in our sector, we had to pivot to source from other geographies. Through our new programme, which we plan to scale over time with our partners and customers, we’re helping our suppliers in France to adopt proven regenerative practices that can rebuild soil health and improve crop yields over time.
Raw material diversification and strategic partnerships
These partnerships are just one element of our multipronged approach to strengthen resilience in supply chains. By diversifying the raw materials used to produce our speciality ingredients, we’re better able to withstand market volatility driven by climate, price fluctuations, and other disruptions, while broadening our customer offer. Today, Tate & Lyle ingredients made from corn are less than 50% of revenue, compared with over 85% five years ago. For instance, with our acquisition of CP Kelco, completed one year ago, customers are now buying pectin made from upcycled citrus peel: that’s another speciality ingredient with strong sustainability credentials added to our portfolio.
By reshaping our global manufacturing footprint in recent years to be geographically closer to our customers in key markets, we can now offer customers ingredients made ‘closer to home’ at one of our 24 manufacturing sites worldwide. And we’ve invested in strategic partnerships, such as with Manus on All-Americas-sourced stevia, to further strengthen security of supply for our customers.
More reasons to be positive
This high level of collaboration across the food ecosystem is yet another reason to be optimistic about the future. I’m proud to see Tate & Lyle committing to science-driven solutions that support society’s goals and help our industry to become fit for the future.
Tate & Lyle has seen enormous change in its 165-year-old history and has adapted time and time again to meet the needs of the day and anticipate the needs of tomorrow. One thing that hasn’t changed though, is our commitment to science, solutions and society – and that includes caring for our planet.