Solina’s engagement to sustainable food solutions
One of Solina’s headline commitments is Sustainability, which we are resolved to achieve at every level across all our operations. True to this pledge, in 2018 we joined forces with other food industry members in the Sustainable Spices Initiative (SSI) to drive forward sustainable sourcing in this sector. The goal is to rethink Solina’s entire approach to spice procurement and reorganise it to support key sustainability concerns.
Safeguarding the spice-growing community
The SSI is a worldwide association of major food industry players who share the same goal of achieving sustainability in global spice production and trade. The SSI’s focus on four key areas – traceability, food safety & quality, securing the supply, and corporate social responsibility – ties in with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the planet.
Solina’s membership of SSI gives a clear signal that we care as much about people and the planet as about profit. We work in pre-competitive collaboration with other SSI members to improve the spice supply chain in a step-by-step process that creates change from the ground up. Our actions are designed to safeguard working conditions among spice-growers, and ensure their families can access decent housing, healthcare and education. In line with SSI objectives, Solina is committed to increasing sustainable sourcing of at least our top three spices over the next few years.
In the words of Marie Cederberg, Solina’s Group Procurement Category Manager for spices: “If we don’t do this now, there won’t be any good products to buy in the future.”
The Sustainable Spices Initiative is already gaining traction
Six months into Solina’s membership of SSI, we have made a real shift in our sustainable. We introduced Sustainability as a new performance indicator for our procurement team in 2018, and have homed in on our 3 highest-volume spices – pepper, onion and paprika – to revisit the organisation of the entire sourcing and supply chain. We judge our procurement performance by how much volume we have shifted over to sustainably sourced channels wherever possible within raw material sourcing.
