We use many different crops to make our products. Our key agricultural crops make up around two-thirds of our agricultural raw material volumes and include commodities commonly used in our products, such as palm oil, soy oil, dairy and cereals. Securing a sustainable supply of these materials is key to protecting and regenerating the natural ecosystems that we depend on. In 2022, 81% of our key agricultural commodities were sustainably sourced, up from 79% in 2021. In 2022 we maintained or improved our sustainable sourcing performance across all of our key crops.
Palm oil is one of the largest commodities that we buy by volume and an essential ingredient in many of our products. Read more about the work we are doing on sustainable palm oil.
Soy oil is another important ingredient used in products such as Hellmann’s mayonnaise. In 2022, 100% of our soy oil was sustainably sourced, partly through the purchase of soy credits as well as an increase in direct physical sourcing. In Iowa in the US, a key sourcing area, we are working with soy farmers and soy oil suppliers to increase the availability of sustainable volumes at the same time as introducing regenerative farming practices, such as cover crops to protect the soil.
Dairy is used by our Ice Cream brands such as Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s. In 2022, 74% of our dairy volume was sustainably sourced, an increase of 11% versus 2021. This was primarily driven by the onboarding of new dairy suppliers to our Sustainable Sourcing Programme.
We have also developed a roadmap for the sustainable sourcing of cereals, with 44% sustainably sourced in 2022 – an increase of 10% versus 2021. Supplier partnerships play an important role in the delivery of our roadmap. For example, our rice programme in Arkansas in the US is not only helping to increase the yield of rice production and availability of sustainably sourced rice, it is also reducing methane emissions and water use.
Read more about sustainable and regenerative sourcing