Food & Agri Businesses and Sustainability

For food and agri-businesses sustainability is looming large on the near horizon and this can represent an opportunity or a threat depending on the strategic approach the management takes. Our European neighbors and parliament have been concentrating on reducing the waste, carbon and energy use of agriculture and the food industry whilst expressing concerns about traceability and food security (how to feed Europe sustainably). Ireland can stand to benefit from all this attention on sustainability as our mild climate and agricultural structure allows us to produce food in a relatively environmentally friendly manner which has excellent traceability from farm to fork.

An Bord Bia has this year launched a campaign to allow Irish food producers prove their sustainability credentials to business buyers both here and abroad. This recognises and builds on the current good reputation of Irish food abroad and represents another step on the path towards sustainability. The new branding – Origin Green – asks companies to develop a sustainability charter which will plot their course on how they will individually take steps to improve their environmental and social footprints over the coming years.

Driven by research which showed that within the food sector the topic of sustainability is not a fad but a fundamental shift in how the consumer engages with food purchasing and will continue to do so.  Addressing these issues can be approached as yet another imposition of costs on business or then inverted to become an opportunity for growth and securing future sales. To access the opportunity will require a lot of strategic planning and re-aligning the business to these opportunities, engaging with suppliers and customers in new patterns of openness and transparency.

SustainEd is well placed to help agri-businesses with developing their sustainability charters to access this market due to our expertise in sustainable business and our understanding of the rural economy in Ireland. We will be posting articles on the agri-business sector and sustainability on our website over the coming months to keep businesses informed of the opportunities which exist.