“We will no longer accept this type of soybean if we have no traceability,” says Michel Puyrazat, chairman of the management board of the Grand Port Maritime de La Rochelle, which has just signed an agreement with EVA and Solteam, respectively bulk carrier and importer of this legume. Their objective ? Unload only Brazilian soybeans from undeforested and unconverted agricultural land on the La Rochelle quays.
These three partners have chosen to take the lead while the European Union is currently working on the subject and wishes to regulate the import of agricultural products such as coffee, soya, cocoa or even rubber.
France, too, enacted in 2018 a “national strategy to combat imported deforestation” to prohibit the landing of such foodstuffs in its seaports by 2030. In La Rochelle, nearly 150,000 tonnes of soybean meal are imported from South America each year, on average. From now on, their recipients will have to provide proof of their traceability and origin.
At the beginning of August, a first vessel – baptized “Ultra Leopard” – inaugurated this new policy in La Rochelle and unloaded nearly 30,000 tonnes of “non-deforesting” soya on behalf of Solteam. A subsidiary of the Avril group, this company has chosen to rely on the NGO Earthworm to certify its soybean imports. “We issue guarantees”, rectifies Grégoire Jacob, program manager with this association which relies on “teams in Brazil” and on satellite imagery to determine the origin of the cargoes.
Part of the customs duties reduced to zero
“We follow each link in the chain to find out how far it takes us. It’s a revolution: we are bringing transparency to a sector that has never had it,” says Grégoire Jacob. Presented as “sustainable”, this soy is no less conventional and mostly from GMOs. “The priority is to stop deforestation”, underlines the program manager of the NGO Earthworm, which counts among its “members” foundations, universities, companies such as the Avril group, BNP Paribas or Airbus.
To accelerate this change and set an example, the Grand Port Maritime La Rochelle has decided to reduce part of the port dues to zero. “The rights related to the goods transported”, abounds Michel Puyrazat who evaluates them at nearly 200,000 euros per year. “Our desire consists in not waiting any longer, in committing immediately. We can no longer remain insensitive, ”he assures before guaranteeing the application of this rebate until the adoption of more restrictive regulations.