Thematic Group on Sustainability Agreements in the Agri-Food Supply Chain
This Thematic Group discussed experiences of sustainability agreements in the food value chain and identified their added value as well as challenges and barriers to such collective actions.
Context & main goal
Collective initiatives leading to agreements between actors in the agri-food supply chain have the potential to make a significant contribution to a sustainable food system, ensuring effective collaboration among actors in the food value chain.
The new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allows for sustainability agreements between primary producers and other actors in the food value chain. Sustainability agreements can help achieve higher sustainability standards than those required by law, in terms of environmental objectives, pesticide use reduction in agricultural production, and animal health and welfare.
Collective sustainability initiatives raise a number of challenges in terms of governance, design of objectives and standards, possible public support, etc. The future development of such initiatives depends on the knowledge and ability of stakeholders to manage these challenges.
In this context, the Thematic Group (TG) on Sustainability Agreements in the Agri-food Supply Chain ran from March to June 2022.
Note: The TG was organised by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) before the official launch of the EU CAP Network on 6 October 2022.
Objectives
The TG discussed how to:
- Understand how sustainability agreements are currently framed and pursued (horizontally and vertically) through the food value chain.
- Identify some of the challenges and barriers that collective actions around sustainability face, including in the light of regulatory changes.
- Identify the added value of pursuing sustainability objectives through collaboration.
Activities
The first TG meeting (17/03/2022) was organised to take stock of the new regulatory framework, understand how sustainability agreements are pursued, and to begin to identify the key challenges and opportunities for sustainability agreements. Discussions focused on what sustainability agreements could mean for businesses, the environment, and the consumer.
The second TG meeting (01/06/2022) allowed TG members to deepen the discussion on opportunities and challenges for sustainability agreements and to share case studies of approaches in various Member States.
Informal online exchanges took place between the two formal TG meetings and allowed for further discussion among the TG members and the exchange of experiences and good practices.
The TG produced a series of outputs that are presented in the Related Publications section further down on this page.
Key findings
The conclusion of the TG are explained in detail in a final document available for download. In summary, TG members concluded that successful Sustainability Agreements should:
- build on existing best practices on collective actions with sustainability objectives
- apply an integrated approach that builds business resilience
- be focused on the longer term
- ensure that consumers understand fully what they are paying for, and that they are aware of and understand how sustainability agreements can support the transition to sustainable food
- ensure that the value chain has robust, credible, fair and transparent sustainability standards in place that can build trust between businesses and consumers through effective communications and clear labelling
- understand consumer interest
- ensure that credible tools, such as labelling, regulation, sustainability scores, are adopted, while recognising that private initiatives can only go so far
- ensure an increased scope for knowledge exchange, peer learning and innovation brokerage to support the ongoing development and implementation of collective sustainability actions.
The TG put together a summary of 31 examples of sustainability agreements which aims to support policymakers and all stakeholders involved in designing and implementing sustainability agreements.
Other collective initiatives and sustainability agreements were analysed in depth as case studies that are also available as separate documents. These refer to a non-recognised Producer Organisation in Spain and Portugal, an organic farming association in Germany, and a recognised fruit and vegetable Producer Organisation in Spain.
Scroll down this page to find all the outputs of this Thematic Group and relevant resources related to this topic.
Learn more
You can find other useful resources about this theme in our Publications section and in our Good Practice database.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at implementation@eucapnetwork.eu.
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