Bonsucro Publishes Outcome Report

Bonsucro recently released its outcome report announcing remarkable progress towards meeting its objective to improve the sustainability of the sugar cane sector. For 10 years, Bonsucro has been providing tools, connections and support across the entire industry to help develop professionalism and resilience in the businesses who work with sugarcane and its many products.

Sugaright and its parent company, CSC Sugar chose Bonsucro to drive its sustainability agenda believing in the power of its multi-stakeholder platform to drive change in the sector. As Chair of the Members Council, and member of the Board of Directors, our Director of Sustainability gives voice not only to the mills that supply our refineries, but also supports all other buyers in the sector to drive change and improvement. Many of our customers have 100% certified sugar by 2020, and we are working hard to help our customers meet that goal.

In 2016, membership grew by 4.5%, and, the number of Bonsucro production certificates by 24%, with 12 new certified mills, including first certifications in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Thailand, more than doubling the countries which have Bonsucro certifications to a total of 9. Market results for certified products have also improved, as key buyers have achieved important milestones towards meeting their sustainability commitments. On the production side, data shows that yields in certified mills have risen above the global FAO average, and so has mill efficiency. Water use has reduced by 40% in certified farms, and certified mills continue improving on water efficiency showing the lowest water use per ton of products to date.

For the whole of the certification period since 2011, Bonsucro mills have saved the equivalent to the annual emissions of 611,732 passenger vehicles. The increase in certificates issued demonstrate the continue spread of good social performance as more operators are able to demonstrate compliance with core indicators in relation to labour rights, health & safety and compliance with local legislations. Through the collection and analyses of various production data, Bonsucro provides an insight into the performances of operators that have gone through an audit for certification. The information collected and reported here can then be leveraged by stakeholders of the sugarcane sector to inform their work and decisions.

Internally, Bonsucro has successfully managed the beginning of its 2020 Strategy implementation. Key achievements in season 2015/16 were the publication of the Benchmarking Protocol (a milestone for the Benchmark & Endorsement Programme) and the partnership with Supply Shift to develop the new Bonsucro IT platform, Bonsucro Connect, which was recently launched.

If your customers are demanding more transparency and social awareness about the food they eat, please contact us to learn more about our sustainable sourcing program and how to engage with Bonsucro. Email us at sales@sugaright.com.