New initiative rewards farmers for sustainable production
It is Danish Crown's stated goal to produce net climate-neutral meat from 2050 and to have halved the climate footprint by 2030. Now the group is ready to reward suppliers who have a sustainability certificate and who continuously report their feed consumption, as this is an important part of the basis for making the life cycle calculations even more precise. And a low and climate-efficient feed consumption is central to the work of reducing the climate footprint.
"This is the first time that Danish Crown is rewarding in cash the farmers who make an extra effort in the name of sustainability. It is an important step for us, but also a completely natural step, because sustainability will be an important competitive parameter in the future. At the same time, it plays well with our project Andelstanken 2.0, where together with the cooperative feed companies we get to choose the feed mixes that work best, so that we can jointly optimize the entire value chain in the coming years", says Nicolaj Norgaard, director of owner service at Danish Crown.
The owners can choose to use Danish Crown's innovative E-control - the so-called "Danish Crown Data", which has been rolled out to unit owners who are responsible for the production of over 8 million fattening pigs in Denmark. Here, Danish Crown can follow the pig's path from the barn to the cooling counter.
In general, feed consumption constitutes a significant climate burden in pig production, and therefore the supplement is an important part of the work to strengthen attention to the right choice of feed out on the farms.
"The owners of the cooperatives jointly sit on the value chain from feed to bacon and thus a fantastic starting point for being able to document sustainability and the climate footprint. It is an enormously important signal to send that the farmers have jointly agreed to work purposefully for a more sustainable production. We are proud of that decision, because it is a big step on the way to achieving our climate goals", says Nicolaj Norgaard.
As a cooperative, Danish farmers own Danish Crown, and this gives the group unique access to influence the entire value chain in a more sustainable direction. This has contributed to the fact that, since 2005, Danish Crown has lowered climate emissions by one kg. pork with around 30%.
"We are fully aware that 10 kroner per kg. pork is not an all-important amount for the individual farmer. But it is important for us to send a signal about how crucial it is that pig production continues its great development on the sustainability front. And we are open to expanding the scheme with more initiatives than just sustainable feed in the future", says Erik Bredholt.
The supplement will be introduced with effect from 1 January 2023, and Danish Crown's unit owners can already now enter the information about their feed in Danish Crown Data.
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