COFCO Argentina makes first shipment of deforestation-free soy flour

COFCO International Argentina has completed the loading of the MV Dublin Eagle with 18,000 metric tons of certified deforestation-free Argentine soymeal at its Timbúes port terminal, located on the Paraná River, near Rosario. This event marks the company’s first fully traceable and segregated shipment of deforestation-free soy products.

This development aligns with the upcoming EU Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR), which ensures that both grains and processed flour are free of recent deforestation. Since harvest, these products have been kept segregated to ensure they are not mixed with non-certified products.

The Visec control platform, developed in Argentina, has been crucial in this process. Thanks to early industry and government investments in this technology, designed to reduce the cost of traceability and serve the country’s entire soy chain, Argentina is favorably positioned to supply Europe with soybeans, meals and related products. that comply with the EUDR. Visec is expected to cover all soybean supplies from Argentina by the end of 2024, including intermediaries such as cooperatives, which would make the country the first to demonstrate full readiness to comply with the EUDR.

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The MV Dublin Eagle will deliver this cargo to R&H Hall, Ireland’s largest feed manufacturer. This shipment follows others made under the mass balance model, where certified and non-certified products are mixed at some point in transit or production. However, the segregated model used here requires that certified products be kept physically separate from non-certified products throughout the supply chain.

The EUDR, which came into force in 2023 and will begin to apply on December 30, 2024, aims to encourage the consumption of deforestation-free products in the EU, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. According to this regulation, any operator or trader who markets in the EU market, or exports from it, raw materials such as soybeans, palm oil, coffee, livestock, cocoa, wood and rubber, or their derivatives, must demonstrate that the products They do not come from lands deforested since 2020 nor have they contributed to forest degradation.

This shipment of deforestation-free soybean meal, along with previous shipments to China, represents a significant step for COFCO International to meet its commitments to establish deforestation- and conversion-free soybean supply chains, and to reduce emissions from the change in land use in the coming years.