Companies included in the animal proteins segment are those with direct farming or fishing operations for livestock, poultry, dairy and/or seafood (including aquaculture) species, inclusive of slaughtering and processing activities.
The animal proteins segment includes 92 companies. Four of these companies reach the top 25 of the benchmark; dairy cooperatives Fonterra, Arla Foods and FrieslandCampina and agribusiness Olam International. These companies demonstrate particular leadership on governance and strategy, where they disclose sustainability strategies and high-level accountability, and in nutrition, with commitments and activities designed to improve the availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy foods. The remainder of the top ten in this segment is comprised of diversified agribusinesses Jeronimo Martins (sixth) and Charoen Pokphand (tenth), seafood companies Nueva Pescanova (fifth), Thai Union Group (eighth) and Mowi (ninth), and dairy company Meiji (seventh).
Despite evidence of leadership among companies in this segment, their overall performance ranks as the lowest in the benchmark, attributable to a widespread lack of disclosure on many key issues. This includes animal welfare, protection of natural terrestrial habitats and water use (environment), availability of healthy foods and responsible marketing (nutrition) and health and safety of vulnerable groups (social inclusion), where on each topic over half of the companies within the segment disclose no relevant information. Furthermore, on high risks topics such as forced labour, only two companies (Thai Union Group and Boparan Holdings) demonstrate leadership. Although some companies demonstrate qualitative efforts to diversify proteins within their product portfolios, few accompany these with time-bound targets to drive accountability and demonstrate leadership.
While most companies in the segment disclose sustainability objectives or strategies, many are failing to operationalise and implement these, with companies across all of the relevant industries demonstrating clear room for improvement across all measurement areas. This is particularly true for livestock and poultry companies, who lack leadership in this segment in the same way as peers from the dairy and seafood industries exhibit.