Vinamilk

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.

Food safety
The company reports that 100% of products are manufactured under the FSSC 22000 system. As a fully vertically integrated company, this covers the entire scope of its operations.

Farmer productivity and resilience
Vinamilk reports to support the productivity and resilience of its dairy farmers, who account for 40% of domestic milk production in Vietnam. The company operates 83 milk collection stations nationwide which support farmers in all matters of dairy farming, including feed distribution, disease control and after-milking cleaning. Vinamilk also discloses quantitative data in support of its activities, showing that herd size increased to 17.3 heads per household and yield improved to 15.1 kilos per cow in 2020, demonstrating year-on-year progress for both metrics.

Sustainable development strategy
Vinamilk discloses sustainable development objectives as well as the process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant topics. However, it does not set time-bound targets to accompany these.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development strategy
The company states that sustainability accountability lies with the board of directors, with the Strategy Committee evaluating the five-year strategic objectives and supervising the implementation of resulting strategic projects. Vinamilk has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive-level staff and directors with sustainability-related key performance indicators.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses that it undertakes engagement activities with multiple stakeholder groups, reporting how it engages with each group and mapping the importance of material issues. Vinamilk could strengthen its performance by disclosing more information on how it identifies and prioritises its high-priority stakeholders and how it integrates outcomes into its strategy.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity, and fertiliser and pesticide use
Vinamilk reports that it adopts good agricultural practices such as organic livestock farming, crop rotation and maximising the use of organic fertilisers for soil instead of chemicals and inorganic fertilisers. It also demonstrates that the proportion of its farms utilising these practices has increased year-on-year since 2016. Furthermore, the company commits not to use pesticides, chemical fertilisers and genetically modified organisms, but it has an opportunity to set targets to track its progress.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
The company has not set any reduction targets for its scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions. Indeed, it discloses that total emissions increased between 2018-2020. Vinamilk has an opportunity to set targets that are aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative’s 1.5-degree warming scenario.

Animal welfare
Vinamilk discloses information relating to cow welfare, including elements of its caring procedure and broad respect for the five freedoms of animal welfare. The company does not disclose time-bound targets, however, and has a further opportunity to demonstrate how it ensures compliance with welfare standards by using third-party auditing.

Protection of natural terrestrial ecosystems
The company does not disclose activities aimed at achieving deforestation and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains for its relevant high-risk commodities. It has an opportunity to increase its disclosure on commitments to source its high-risk commodities through recognised certification programmes or by disclosing targets for achieving DCF supply chains.

Protein diversification
Vinamilk has launched a range of nut-based milk products to meet new nutritional trends and contribute to food security assurance. Although it discloses that 1.33% of product sales were plant-based in 2020, it could strengthen this commitment by setting a sales-based target to increase these sales as a proportion of its overall portfolio.

Availability of healthy foods
Vinamilk provides quantitative evidence that it is improving the healthiness of its portfolio by increasing the percentage of products that have reduced fat and sugar. The company has an opportunity to set targets and adopt a nutrient profiling system to further strengthen its activities.

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

Clear and transparent labelling
Vinamilk reports that the information on its labels complies with Vietnamese law for 100% of its product portfolio. Customers can also access information about the products using QR codes, but the company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by adopting an interpretive front-of-pack labelling scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company reports that its marketing activities are conducted legally and transparently, but does not disclose a responsible marketing policy, nor specific guidelines for marketing to children. 

Child and forced labour
The company has a commitment not to use child and forced labour, but it is unclear the extent to which this commitment covers the entirety of the company’s operations. Vinamilk has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification system in place and to prohibit them from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not disclose that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Land rights
The company does not commit to recognising and respecting the legitimate tenure rights related to the ownership and use of land of local communities.

While Vinamilk commits to respecting human rights through its code of conduct, it lacks disclosure on all other indicators related to respecting human rights. Within its own operations, this relates to identifying, assessing and taking action to address its human rights salient risks, identifying and engaging with stakeholders whose human rights are potentially or actually impacted, and having a grievance mechanism for both employees and external stakeholders.

The company publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers through its code of conduct, and it discloses that 100% of employees participated in collective bargaining agreements in 2020. Although it does not explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment, it does disclose data on board and management gender diversity. However, the company does not disclose commitments or targets related to paying a living wage.

The company’s code of conduct outlines its commitment to prohibit bribery and corruption and, although it does not publicly commit to protecting personal data, it does disclose a privacy statement on the use of personal data. However, Vinamilk does not report on a global tax strategy or policy statement outlining its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Neither does it provide information on tax paid per tax jurisdiction or lobbying expenditures.