Currently, JBS, in accordance with its Responsible Raw Material Sourcing Policy, monitors 100% of its direct cattle suppliers using strict sustainability criteria, including zero tolerance for deforestation, encroachment on indigenous lands or environmental conservation units, forced labor, or the use of areas embargoed by Ibama. The Company’s monitoring program includes a daily analysis covering more than 50,000 cattle supplying farms in the Amazon.
“Over the last decade, we have made significant investments to establish one of the world’s largest private supplier monitoring systems. We have also engaged in industry initiatives, along with non-governmental organizations and the Federal Prosecution Office in states of the Legal Amazon region, and sponsored educational programs for our suppliers to help them improve their land stewardship,” said Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS South America and Seara.
The platform will use blockchain technology and is an unprecedented initiative that will cross-reference data regarding the Company’s suppliers with livestock transportation data. The technology will enable JBS to extend to the other links in the production chain the same socio-environmental criteria that it currently applies to its suppliers in the Amazon. The initiative will employ blockchain technology precisely to provide confidential and secure access to the information regarding its suppliers. The information will be audited and the results reported in the Company’s annual and sustainability report.
JBS will launch campaigns for engaging with suppliers and other interested parties to ensure that all its suppliers’ suppliers are included in the platform by 2025.
“We are confident that our industry, and all other important stakeholders, will join us in this important endeavor. We believe that through collaboration, partnership and engagement, we can manage to bring about transformational change in the Biome that will result increasingly sustainable production,” said Renato Costa, CEO of Friboi, the Company’s beef business unit.
In addition, JBS will also provide legal, environmental and livestock husbandry advisory services to help producers improve the stewardship of their land. JBS will expand its sustainability educational activities for livestock suppliers and increase investments to develop digital platforms that help ensure properties can gain compliance with the Company’s policies, as it already does in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará.