Ebro Foods

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the environment measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Ebro Foods considers sustainable growth to be one of the basic pillars of its management strategy. Therefore, in 2019, the company launched its Heading for 2030 global sustainability plan, which is in line with its materiality analysis. Since the company is at the beginning of its sustainability journey, it is not yet able to report on progress towards the goals set.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Although Ebro Foods states that responsibility for its sustainability strategy lies with one or several board committees, it has an opportunity to strengthen its accountability system by assigning this responsibility to the company’s highest governance body and disclosing further information on its decision-making processes and oversight structure.

Stakeholder engagement
While the company has conducted stakeholder engagement activities and discloses an overview of the issues raised via these activities, it has an opportunity to disclose how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders, along with information on how the outcomes of the engagement process are integrated into the company’s sustainable development strategy.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Ebro Foods discloses its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions reductions against a 2018 baseline. However, the company does not have a global target for reducing its GHG emissions, showing room for improvement. In relation to scope 3 emissions, Ebro Foods discloses that its rice division has reduced emissions by 13.64%. The company can improve in this area by setting a time-bound target to reduce scope 3 emissions.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company provides qualitative evidence of sustainable growing techniques for crops through its initiatives and in collaboration with stakeholders such as the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform and the Sustainable Rice Platform. However, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the percentage of production from sustainable practices that improve soil health and agrobiodiversity, reporting progress against the targets and disclosing quantifiable data on its impact on soil health and agrobiodiversity.

Water use
While the company discloses its water consumption, it does not demonstrate quantitative reductions in water withdrawals across its own operations.

Food loss and waste
While the company is addressing food loss and waste in its own operations through “Don’t waste food” programme, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment by setting targets to reduce food loss and waste across its own operations and supply chain and reporting against these targets.

Plastic use and packaging waste
While the company discloses that it is reducing its plastic use and transitioning to sustainable forms of packaging, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to reduce plastic use and transition to more sustainable forms of packaging and reporting against these targets.

Availability of healthy foods
The company does not provide evidence of improving the nutritional quality of its products and of proportionally increasing the sales of healthy foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company does not provide evidence of a commitment and activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for vulnerable groups.

Clear and transparent labelling
While the company discloses a commitment of compliance with national regulations regarding labelling and commits to providing nutritional information on key relevant nutrients through back-of-pack labels, it has an opportunity to make nutritional information more visible to consumers through the adoption of front-of-pack labels and/or any other consumer-facing nutrition label.

Food safety
Ebro Food demonstrates that all its own operations are certified to a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) – recognised food safety scheme / certification programme. There remains an opportunity for the company to disclose the percentage of its food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme.

Child labour
While the company commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification system in place.

Forced labour
While the company commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Living wage
The company does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
Ebro Foods has various initiatives related to supporting resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers, and these are disclosed in its sustainability report. However, the company could increase its level of disclosure by reporting on the impact of these activities.

Ebro Foods commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights for workers in both its own operations and supply chain. Although it has a grievance mechanism that is accessible to employees, the company does not indicate if the channel is accessible to external stakeholders as well. The company fails to disclose information on key topics such as human rights risk assessment and engagement with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

The company discloses commitments to respect the health and safety of workers in its own operations and supply chain. It does not allow overtime work for its workers and discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Moreover, the company reports on workforce diversity by providing information for each employee category by age group and gender. However, the company lacks disclosure around implementation and monitoring of its commitments. Neither does it disclose what it is doing to ensure its workers are paid a living wage.

Ebro Foods publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. In relation to bribery and corruption, the company has a policy prohibiting both. It also discloses the steps it takes to identify and address these issues, including among its business relationships. Although the company has a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions, it fails to disclose any policy statements setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach and possible expenditures on lobbying activities.