ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, US — Bunge announced on Feb. 7 that it has achieved 80% traceability and monitoring of soybeans from its indirect supply chain in the Brazilian Cerrado. The company said the pioneering, large-scale initiative to track indirect purchases in the biome is part of the Bunge’s Sustainable Partnership Program and underscores its consistent performance in the development of sustainable and responsible supply chains, particularly in areas at higher risk of deforestation in Brazil. 

Launched in 2021, Bunge’s Sustainable Partnership Program was designed to help grain resellers assess suppliers’ social-environmental performance. Through the program, Bunge shares its experience, methodologies and tools with grain resellers to enable them to bring to market commodities of proven sustainable origin. The program offers access to verification systems, such as satellite and farm-scale images to advance the traceability and monitoring of farms. 

“The program reaffirms Bunge’s active role in engaging and positively influencing the entire supply chain in Brazil and remains an important instrument in helping the company achieve its goal of deforestation-free chains in 2025,” said Pamela Moreira, Bunge’s sustainability senior manager for South America. “Since 2018, Bunge has been able to fully trace back to third-party elevators, so the next step was to expand our focus to soybeans acquired through our indirect supply chain in the Brazilian Cerrado. The strategy has led to positive results and strong adoption among grain resellers.”

To further strengthen the program, Bunge is enhancing its partnership with Vega Monitoramento, an agtech company that uses LYRA platform for remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and structured data to perform the socio-environmental diagnosis of agricultural properties.

Developed by Vega Monitoramento and certified by Bureau Veritas — a leader in testing, inspection and certification (TIC) — the LYRA platform is available through an exclusive web interface developed with Bunge. Resellers and cooperatives can access the tool directly without involvement from Bunge and with security endorsed by ISO 27001 certification, an international standard that meets a series of requirements, processes and controls aimed at managing information security. 

“Investing in digital solutions is part of Bunge’s strategy to expand the scale of its initiatives and positively impact the agribusiness sector,” commented Braian Souto, senior manager of global digital office at Bunge. “We have a culture of continuous improvement and believe in collaboration, sharing practices, technology and information with our value chains to act faster, simpler and more efficiently.”

Resellers and cooperatives participating in the program get full support from Bunge’s business team, in addition to complete technical support from Vega, which offers training for the implementation of the system as well as unlimited free access to the Sustainable Partnership program platform. Companies interested in being part of the Sustainable Partnership can access the program page on Bunge’s website.

Bunge recently was named to Investor’s Business Daily’s 2022 Best ESG Companies list, which recognizes 100 companies for superior Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings in addition to strong fundamental and technical stock performance.

In November 2021, Bunge announced a commitment to climate action and sustainability leadership that would make significant enhancements across its global operations, promote decarbonization through regenerative farming practices, and enhance shipping and logistics to achieve science-based targets.