Tyson Foods Partners with Proforest to Conduct Global Deforestation Risk Assessment

Tyson Foods, Inc. of Arkansas, USA, today put out a press release announcing our work together to help the company conduct a deforestation risk assessment of its global agricultural supply chains. The assessment will identify if there is risk in the company’s sourcing origins, focusing on priority commodities such as cattle, palm oil, soy, timber, pulp and paper.

Proforest will partner with Global Canopy, an international environmental NGO, and utilise Trase, a publicly available supply chain mapping platform developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute and Global Canopy.

Findings from the risk assessment will inform the development of a Tyson Foods Forest Protection Policy in 2020. The assessment is also expected to inform, if necessary, the implementation of actions to mitigate or eliminate any identified deforestation risks.

Tyson Foods partnered with an environmentally focused non-government organisation to conduct a sustainable sourcing risk assessment in 2017, which classified the company’s deforestation risk as minimal to low. Since then, the company has expanded its international presence from two countries to nine, with the acquisition of Keystone Foods and additional poultry businesses in Thailand and Europe. Given the company’s expanded footprint, the supply chain will be reassessed to identify and classify potential risks.

In addition to the partnership with Proforest, Tyson Foods recently became a member of RTRS, and is also a member of RSPO.