Red Tractor’s Main Board has set a firm timetable to make its Greener Farms Commitment (GFC) available from 1 April 2024. Red Tractor has been working on this environment module since 2020, recognising that the pressure on Retail, Out Of Home (OOH) operators and brands to source their primary produce more sustainably, could lead to a multitude of audit demands on the supply chain and particularly farmers.
Concerned about these increasing audit demands, Red Tractor has been developing an additional, voluntary module designed to meet the needs of the market with a single consistent industry approach. This offers farmers, processors, and packers one set of common criteria. The outcome is the Greener Farms Commitment which has the full support of businesses represented by the British Retail Consortium.
Andrew Opie from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: “Retailers are under increasing pressure to disclose how their sourcing policies promote positive management of soil, water and biodiversity both to consumers and investors. The new Red Tractor Greener Farms Commitment optional module offers the opportunity for farmers to deliver that assurance in a consistent, efficient scheme. Farmers in other countries are already embarking on similar schemes but we feel the Red Tractor scheme puts British farmers in the strongest position to demonstrate their credentials alongside quality and provenance to British consumers.”
Red Tractor’s GFC is a voluntary addition which will operate very differently from its typical core standards. It enables farmers to make commitments and track their own progress across five key areas for environmentally focused farming: Carbon foot printing; Soil management; Nutrient management; Waste management; and Biodiversity. It will recognise other schemes or programmes such as the SFI and other devolved government schemes, reducing the cost and complexity, and making it as easy as possible for farmers to complete.
The GFC will have its own logo, enabling farmers and British agriculture to demonstrate their environmental credentials to consumers, whilst also differentiating the high quality of British products compared to international competition.
Red Tractor CEO, Jim Moseley said: “We’re providing the supply chain with a definitive timetable for making the Greener Farms Commitment available on 1 April next year. The initiative takes a new approach which will offer benefits to everyone. It gives Red Tractor farmers a new way of differentiating their product and a consistent framework to talk about their environmental credentials. The GFC is designed to protect farmers from future audit demands, costs and complexity. While some farmers may not be facing these questions from their customers yet, there is clear evidence from some agricultural sectors that alternative schemes have added cost, duplication and complexity for Red Tractor farmers.”
“For processors and packers, the common industry approach should reduce the need for a multitude of product lines to be segregated, which could be substantial if customers start to develop their own bespoke programmes. For retailers, out of home operators and brands, the GFC provides the evidence they need to show that their sourcing strategies are from farmers committed to looking after the environment.”