Our responsible purchasing policy
The vast majority of the vegetables in Bonduelle products come directly from our partner farmers. For everything else, we select our suppliers according to strict standards and subject them to demanding and rigorous assessments.
Packaging, energy, food ingredients, industrial equipment, transport and other services: our purchasing strategy is based on the regular assessment of and support for our suppliers with a view to continuous improvement. In addition to compliance, regulatory requirements and our duty to ensure food safety, we select our partners based on criteria related to social and environmental responsibility.
The Covid-19 pandemic merely strengthens our certainty that the global shift to more sustainable diets will help national supply chains withstand shocks.
Our procurement model
Our purchasing strategy is based on high standards of compliance and CSR.
To produce quality food products that are affordable for everyone, Bonduelle favors direct purchases from partner producers. This vegetable sourcing model not only enables us to promote short circuits, but also to focus on our core business: the preparation and preservation of plant-based foods – and the development of our agro-industrial know-how. Our teams supplement these supplies by purchasing from other suppliers.
Our purchasing strategy
For our purchases of fruit, vegetables and finished products, our group develops technical specifications whose standards are as demanding as those applied by our 2,030 partner farmers.
For all our other purchasing categories, Bonduelle ensures that its suppliers comply with regulatory requirements. However, the group is going further with a major supplier risk mapping project. This approach takes into account the financial and non-financial risks for Bonduelle, as well as the risks for the group's stakeholders – because it is our duty to identify and prevent violations of the environment, human rights, health and personal safety.
Our assessment standards
How do we ensure that our purchases are responsible? By screening them relative to the major international social and environmental responsibility standards: the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, the United Nations Global Compact and the ISO 26000 standard. As such, since 2017, over 260 of Bonduelle’s key suppliers have undergone a CSR assessment by the independent platform EcoVadis.
The EcoVadis method is based on 21 indicators covering four themes: environment, social, ethics and purchasing. Alongside this assessment process, our Purchasing teams work daily with our suppliers to help make Bonduelle a company with a positive impact on society and the environment.
Four criteria for selecting our suppliers
- Reduce the environmental impact of packaging
- Select ingredients that comply with food and environmental best practices
- Establish a responsible transportation sub-contracting approach
- Buy electricity “over the counter”, directly from renewable energy producers
We are committed to green electricity!
At the end of 2021, Bonduelle and nine other manufacturers signed an unprecedented contract with the French green electricity supplier Voltalia. This “over-the-counter” contract, or power purchase agreement, gives our group and our colleagues access to 100% green electricity at a fixed price over the long term. This progress reflects our concrete and collective commitment to combat climate change!
How does Bonduelle implement its responsible purchasing policy? Read the white paper written by EcoVadis on the CSR performance monitoring of supply chains, including Bonduelle’s.
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