Agriculture and food

To support the strategy development of Oxfam Novib’s Fair Food Value Chains & Food Systems team, Profundo conducted foundational research to consolidate trends in international trade in agricultural commodities from selected countries to the Netherlands, identify opportunities for food systems transformation, and to map potential alliances across civil society to advocate for fair and just food value chains. The foundational research consists of four key pillars (market research, regulation and policy mapping, alternative food systems typology, and allies mapping), resulting in a set of recommendations to leverage opportunities for Oxfam Novib’s future campaigns on food systems transformation and fair food value chains.

Chickens and pigs in Germany are fed with soy that is sourced in part from fields where the Amazon rainforest used to stand. Supermarket chains have pledged for years to remove this soy from their supply chains, but little has changed.

The Netherlands is the biggest importer of Soy in the EU, 60% of Dutch soy imports are from Brazil, part of it is distributed across the EU. This study also shows that more than 85% is used as animal feed. The report commissioned by Greenpeace gives an overview of data on soy shipments to the Netherlands, destinations of Dutch soy imports from Brazil, estimated land use and the potential deforestation linked to the soy production.

This report analyses how Dutch policies on foreign affairs, trade development, and other economic topics are promoting or hampering the advent and adoption of agroecology, agro-biodiversity and agroecological approaches and practices. More specifically, how public resources (both ODA as well as non-ODA, including through vehicles like Public Private Partnerships and blended finance constructions) are allocated to support agricultural development projects, and what share of, to what extent, and how, that funding is supportive of transformational agroecological approaches and practices.

African oil palm expansion is not working as planned. Only five international companies dominate industrial oil palm production in Africa. Some of which have been linked to social and environmental impacts, violating their buyers’ NDPE commitments. Therefore, investors may see risk in African palm oil caused by stranded land and reputation risk.

This study gives an overview of all soy bean, oil and meal exports by Cargill, ADM, Bunge and Louis Dreyfus, from Brazil to the EU and the United Kingdom in 2021.