São Paulo, March 30th, 2021 – JBS has been considered one of the world’s best companies in Animal Welfare, remaining in Tier 3 of the 9th edition of The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW), the annual report on the issue that enjoys global disclosure. The Company, with multiprotein operations in 13 countries, continues to abide by its commitments while enhancing its policies and actions, which can be seen in one of the institution’s reports that shows that the scores of JBS are higher than the industry average industry in all criteria evaluated.
JBS continually adopts a careful approach to the quality and security of food at every phase of the production chain, which all begins with how the animals are looked after. In 2020, the Company invested R$ 162.8 million in animal welfare advances in Brazil, training over 27,000 people about the issue, including employees, producers and suppliers.
JBS manages this issue through specialized teams for each type of protein it processes (poultry, pork and beef), and employs techniques that are constantly enhanced according to best domestic and international market practices monitored by its Animal Welfare Committee.
The JBS beef operations, for example, are so far the only industry in Brazil to use cameras to monitor the evaluation of animal welfare indicators at 100% of its units.
Among the most recent measures the Company has adopted in Brazil, also worthy of note is the acquisition of a new fleet of trucks designed to ensure that the cattle are more comfortable during transit from the farms to the Friboi’s processing units, in addition to investment in transporting poultry and pigs, as well as better industrial equipment and facilities.
Another point worth emphasizing is the progress of Seara in its commitment to using collective gestation stalls for sows, which are more comfortable when compared to individual stalls. The company aims to have 100% of its production on this system by 2025.
Additionally, Seara has made substantial investments in modernizing and acclimatizing it poultry and pig farms, expanding or replacing the infrastructure, with a total built area exceeding 1 million square meters for breeding the animals.
The new projects include Animal Farm 4.0, whose benefits include monitoring of the animals within the farms using sensors that provide real-time information about parameters such as ambient temperature and humidity, air quality, weight and even the behavior of the animals. Remote monitoring made possible using technology also helps reduce the movement of people around the farms, thus enhancing biosafety actions.
About JBS
JBS is the world’s second-largest food company and the largest in animal protein. With a global platform diversified by geography and type of products (poultry, pork, beef and lamb), the Company has over 250,000 Team Members in production units and offices on all continents, in countries like Brazil, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and China, among others. In Brazil, there are over 145,000 Team Members, making the company one of the country’s largest private employers. Worldwide, JBS offers an extensive portfolio of brands recognized for excellence and innovation: Swift, Pilgrim’s Pride, Seara, Moy Park, Friboi, Primo, and Just Bare, among many others, which find their way every day onto the tables of consumers in 190 countries. The Company is also investing in correlated businesses like leather, biodiesel, collagen, personal hygiene and cleaning, natural wrapping, solid waste management solutions, recycling, metallic packaging and transport. JBS conducts its operations focused on the high quality and safety of its food products, and it adheres to best sustainability and animal welfare practices throughout its value chain. The Together for the Amazon program is part of this commitment. Besides fostering the sustainable development of the Amazon biome, promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the forest, it also incorporates improvements in the quality of life of the population living there, as well as the development of new technologies for preserving the environment. With the implementation of a blockchain platform, unrivalled in the animal protein sector, it will extend control not only over the direct suppliers of JBS, but also over their suppliers.