The NPA is working with other organisations to try and ensure a sustainable future supply of soya to the UK livestock industry.
The association is part of the UK Roundtable on Sustainable Soya and policy services officer Lizzie Wilson attended the official launch event of in July.
The roundtable brings together companies and industry associations with an interest in the UK soya market to ‘achieve a shared goal of a secure, resilient, sustainable supply of soya to the UK, with joint progress monitoring and reporting’.
It was convened by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), with input from Defra and the Department for International Development. The event was launched by BEIS Minister Claire Perry alongside Marks & Spencer’s Sustainability Director and representation from WWF.
With support from the Government, the Roundtable signatories, which also include a number of major retailers and pork processors, have committed to sourcing soya ‘that is legal and cultivated in a way that protects against conversion of forests and valuable native vegetation’.
This will be achieved by signatories committing to publish ‘timebound’ plans, by April 2019 and ‘meaningful and demonstrable progress towards this Goal’ by 2020.
