FOOD and drink companies are not disclosing adequate information about the risks of synthetic fertiliser in their supply chains, according to a new report.
Analysis by the green finance think tank Planet Tracker found that a third of the world’s largest food and drink companies have not disclosed any information since 2018 about the risks created by synthetic fertiliser in their supply chains.
The study, published today, looked at over 5,000 corporate filings from the world’s 45 biggest food and drink companies by market share, collectively worth US$2.6trn, between 2018 and 2023.
Synthetic fertilisers are responsible for 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to nitrous oxide air pollution. They can also cause harmful algal blooms in freshwater and marine ecosystems. However, the latest analysis found that a third of the largest food and drink companies have not “indicated risk awareness” related to fertiliser misuse in their supply chains.
Emma Amadi, a food and drink investment analyst at Planet Tracker, said: “Without comprehensive disclosures, investors and stakeholders are left in the dark about the true scale of these risks and the actions being taken to mitigate them.”
Planet Tracker called for food producers to publish plans to reduce synthetic fertiliser use by 70% by 2050, and for all companies in the food and drink industry to disclose supply chain emissions data from fertiliser use.
Of the two-thirds of companies that did publish information about the risks of fertilisers in their supply chains, only a third of the disclosures were deemed “adequate”. The majority were inconsistent and contained only “superficial” data, Planet Tracker said.
Heineken, Diageo, and Coca-Cola each published no more than four fertiliser risk statements in the six-year period. PepsiCo published 15 in the six-year period but has only published three since 2019.
The report praised food producer Olam Group as having significantly improved its disclosures. After failing to produce any between 2018 and 2021, they filed 37 in 2022 and 2023 – more than any other company over the six-year period examined in the study.
Belgium-based brewer AB InBev was also highlighted for having published 21 disclosures since 2018.
The report found that fertiliser overuse is a big problem, with companies around the world using at least double the amount theoretically needed to produce enough food. Amadi said: “While there is a growing awareness of the environmental risks posed by synthetic fertilisers, our findings expose a significant lack of transparency among the biggest global food system players. We remain a long way from seeing sustainable fertiliser use across the food system.”
Amadi told TCE that “fertilisers are a risk to the whole food system”. When asked why many companies do not prioritise fertiliser-associated risks in their public disclosures, Amadi said that “it has fallen behind some other environmental issues”, such as emissions data from transport.
Amadi pointed out that “fertiliser for some companies also may be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Managing fertiliser misuse should really be part of all food companies’ emission reduction programmes.”
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