Südzucker joins Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform

At World Expo 2015, held in Milan in June, Südzucker AG Mannheim signed up for the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform. Food producers and their raw material suppliers join SAI Platform to document their adherence to comprehensive sustainability criteria.
In his welcoming address, the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture's Parliamentary State Secretary Peter Bleser stressed that the beet farming and European sugar industries' sus-tainability concept is already quite advanced; enough to serve as a best practice model.

Südzucker has made significant progress in applying sustainability principles over the past twenty-five years: "While yields have increased over sixty percent, nitrogen-based fertilizer use has shrunk by one-third and pesticide application by as much as three-quarters," said Dr Thomas Kirchberg, board member responsible for agricultural commodities and production at Südzucker AG. "But it is mainly thanks to our partnership with farmers that Südzucker was able to take the next step and join SAI. Without their clear commitment to sustainable farming, membership would not have been possible," continued Kirchberg.

Ulrike Sapiro, president of SAI Platform, welcomed Südzucker's strong commitment: "We are extremely pleased that Südzucker has become a member. The fact that the world's largest sugar producer has acknowledged the value of the platform demonstrates that it has been accepted and is a testament to SAI's concept of embedding sustainable practices in farming.”

"Systematic corporate sustainability policies and practices continue to be essential to our future," explains Dr Wolfgang Heer, CEO of Südzucker AG. "Our food industry customers and their end users highly value documented sustainability along the entire value chain. They must be able to measure our performance in this regard."