Under each of these themes there is a range of essential and desired criteria – essentially practices that are associated with responsible soy production. Private companies can then look at their own soy certification standards and ‘benchmark’ their schemes against these criteria. If they pass the benchmarking process, they will be highlighted on The International Trade Centre (ITC) Sustainability Map.
This helps ensure market transparency on responsible soy sourcing and clarity on which private standards are in line with the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines. The FEFAC-Soy-Sourcing-Guidelines-2021 were updated in February 2021 and now include 54 essential (obligatory) criteria and 19 desired (optional) criteria. Each scheme must meet at least 8 out of 19 desired criteria to pass the benchmarking exercise. In addition, a to updating the guidelines, FEFAC also developed a transparency tool to facilitate the market transparency on ‘conversion free’ soy i.e., sourcing that does not cause or contribute to the conversion of natural ecosystems. The schemes/programmes that have applied and passed the ITC Benchmarking process against the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines 2021, including the desired criterion on conversion-free soy are Cargill Triple S Soya Products, Cefetra Certified Responsible Soya Standard, RTRS, Donau Soja, Europe Soya, ProTerra Foundation and Sustainable Farming Assurance Programme.