As Fonterra farmers start to assess their greenhouse gas emissions and their mitigation, the South Korean government is also demanding the same of its farmers.
Fonterra’s Asia business planning general manager, Bryn Rowdon, said the perception of what constitutes a “sustainable” food product is steadily growing in South Korea, reflecting what is occurring throughout much of Asia.
With that comes a need for suppliers like Fonterra, and therefore their farmers, to meet those demands.
“The Korean government is quite invested in this, and by 2050 aims to be carbon neutral and is also pursuing ESG goals from its industries.”
ESG, or “environmental, social and governance” goal-setting, is a reporting standard that aims to identify a company’s progress and goal-setting across all three areas.
“All listed Korean companies will have to divulge their progress against ESG goals by 2030, and this is similar to what is happening in Japan.”
The government is also to enforce a carbon certification scheme and has the pork sector as the first on the list in the primary sector, before rolling out to the country’s 6000 dairy farms.
Farms that can show they are making progress towards lower carbon intensity will be able to add a certification to their products’ labelling.
Fonterra’s active living category manager Jack Stenhouse said Fonterra already has a Korean client that has used the New Zealand based Toitu carbon certification audit, as they aim to move towards carbon neutrality.
“We are starting to see more companies in the food and beverage sector look at this. It is not quite at the rate of the EU, but it is getting there.”
