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Bayer is committed to delivering sustainable agricultural solutions to overcome today’s challenges and contribute towards meeting the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. At this year’s Fruit Logistica in Berlin from February 3 to 5, the company presented its Food Chain Partnership initiative that connects partners along the value chain enabling safety, quality, affordability, transparency and above all sustainability, from seed to shelf. “The Food Chain Partnership exemplifies our commitment to sustainable agriculture, food safety, and food security at Bayer”, said Mathias Kremer, Member of the Executive Committee at the Crop Science Division of Bayer, responsible for Crop Strategies and Portfolio Management. “In its eleventh year, the initiative continues to yield collaborations across the food chain that benefit not only food chain partners but also ultimately the consumer.”
Overcoming global challenges with sustainable solutions
For Bayer sustainability is an integral part of the company’s business strategies along the entire value chain from growers and processors to traders and retailers.
“We aim to overcome challenges such as population growth by working together on integrated solutions according to sustainable agricultural principles”, said Kremer. “That is why we focus on improving resource efficiency in agriculture and offer stewardship and safe-use trainings to mitigate the potential impact on people and environment.”
Bayer didn’t limit its dialogue to the Food Chain Partnership, but also addressed critical topics like bee health with experts from the Bee Care team also present at the booth. Further, the company launched several new case studies emphasizing the wide diversity of projects within the Food Chain Partnership initiative ranging from gherkins in India, black currants in Poland and lettuce in Germany to table grapes in South Africa. One impressive example is the cooperation with a banana producer in the Dominican Republic that works according to organic farming principles. “This partnership showcases our broad portfolio in integrated crop solutions, and thus reflects Bayer’s holistic approach in sustainable agriculture”, said Silke Friebe, Head of Food Chain Management. “We offer this partner a high-quality portfolio of biological crop protection products backed by training measures, demo plots and a stewardship program”, explained Friebe.
“Our partner benefits from a reduced number of product applications, with a clear focus on alternative solutions to tackle black sigatoka, a severe disease threatening banana crops.”
Additionally, Bayer demonstrated its collaborative approach in sustainable agriculture in its Exhibitor Forum. In a series of expert talks with external partners such as Coca Cola, UNIVEG, GlobalG.A.P. and the French owner of the Bayer ForwardFarm Chateau Lamothe, the company addressed key trends and challenges. The participants illustrated how Bayer is working towards the solution by showcasing initiatives like Bayer ForwardFarming, Bayer’s certification tool Bayg.a.p., as well as the company’s efforts to develop digital solutions and combat citrus greening. Beyond that a keynote speech by Prof. Dr. Fred Brouns, Health Food Innovation, Maastricht University, highlighted the various challenges and needs in food production and how everything is interconnected. “If we want to produce more food and at the same time use less resources, we need concerted improvements”, Brouns highlighted.
“The growing interest in our sustainability concept at the Fruit Logistica showed once again, that Bayer Food Chain Partnership is a journey of continuous improvement”, said Friebe. “That’s why, in addition to numerous projects in fruit and vegetables, the Food Chain Partnership initiative is currently being extended to broad-acre crops such as oilseed rape, wheat and rice.”
