Context:
Global agricultural supply chains are under great pressure: geopolitical tensions, the climate and biodiversity crisis and regulatory requirements are impacting production and trade.
Small-scale producers and workers in production countries often live and work under difficult conditions and have neither access to relevant markets nor political say or power.
Meanwhile, European companies must adapt their supply chains to current European Union (EU) requirements such as the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) or other standards, while at the same time securing access to socially and climate-friendly raw materials.
Objective:
The conditions for a socio-ecological transformation of global agricultural supply chains are improved.
Approach:
The project organises innovative formats for dialogue and cooperation between private, state and civil society actors. It also builds capacity, skills and structures in production countries in order to grant small producers market access.
With the Due Diligence Fund (DDF) ideas competition, it promotes business models that implement due diligence obligations and innovations in cultivation or processing.
Under the name FIT for FAIR, it advises governments in producing countries. It supports dialogue and reform processes in order to adapt national policies to EU or other standards and build competencies.
Through the Alliance for the Digital Integration of Agricultural Supply Chains (DIASCA), it connects politics, business and civil society worldwide. Together, they are developing digital public infrastructures (DPI) for traceability, monitoring and data exchange.
The project is part of the Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains Initiative (SASI) and contributes to the Team Europe Initiatives (TEI) Deforestation-free Value Chains and Sustainability in Global Value Chains.