European retailers and policy-makers at the heart of a global SUPPLY CHA!NGE.

10:00 – 11:00

Keynote Speech "Tainted Food: Moving Beyond ‘the Consumer is the King’ Narrative" about the importance and challenges of implementing Business and Human Rights by Prof. Surya Deva, the current vice-chairperson of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

• Pascal Durand (French MEP) on the green card on the duty of vigilance.
• Heidi Hautala (MEP) on due diligence at the EU.
• Lettemieke Mulder (Eurocommerce) on the initiatives of retailers to implement corporate human rights and environmental due diligence in their supply chains.
• Dr. Christopher Tankou (University of Dschang, Department of Crop Science, Cameroon) on the insights from Cameroon.
• Sandra Dusch (CIR) on policy demands from European CSOs.

How to promote environmental and human rights due diligence in food supply chains.

         FORUM I: European retailers and human rights due diligence in practice. The case of orange juice from Brazil. Brazilian exporters dominate the world market for orange juice concentrate. Almost 80 % of the frozen liquid comes from Brazil and is purchased from European bottlers and retailers to produce (store) brand orange juice. This working group will track the adverse impacts of the orange juice industry, particularly focussing on labour rights. It will discuss the ways forward to achieve a sustainable and fair production, taking into account all relevant stakeholders and based on retailers human rights due diligence in practice.
Chair: Sandra Dusch Silva (CIR) Input: Jennifer Lichter (sustainability food REWE Group)

         FORUM II: Stopping deforestation, loss of biodiversity and climate change resulting from agricultural production. The case of palm oil in Indonesia.
Whether food, cosmetic or sanitary products – more than half of all products in European supermarkets contain palm oil. Indonesia is the world’s largest supplier country of palm oil. About 70% of the palm oil production is undertaken on large-scale plantations, posing an increasing threat to the rain forests and local biodiversity. This working group will discuss the concept of environmental due diligence to foster sustainability in palm oil supply chain.
Chair and input: Martin Wildenberg (GLOBAL2000) and Klementina Dukoska (Climate Reality Leadership Corps).

         FORUM III: Applying lessons from existing EU supply chain regulations to global food supply chains.
This working group will discuss relevant supply chain regulations by the EU in other sectors such as illegal timber, conflict minerals and illegal fishing to draw lessons for the development of new EU measures to regulate global food supply chains. FERN will present their findings about the forest risk-commodities and how we can learn from them best practices.
Chair and Input: Saskia Luutsche Ozinga (FERN) and Ken Matthysen (IPIS).

         FORUM IV: The Role of small and medium size companies in improving local development and livelihoods in the Global South.
Farmers often struggle to get the coordination of resources to efficiently and ethically till their land and sell. CACAO.academy trains and supports farmers to evolve their lands organically and ethically into multidiverse opportunities to keep their families in sustainable business. Cocoa has long played a vital role in Cameroon’s economic development. Its production is mainly by peasant farmers who do not earn sufficient income to meet their needs and maintain a moderate standard of living. They are left to suffer, which endangers the cocoa sector and their entire livelihood.
Chair and input: Alyssa Jade McDonald-Bärtl (BLYSSChocolate) and Christopher Tankou (University of Dschang)

• Jerome Chaplier, ECCJ
• MEP Florent Marcellesi, European Parliament
• Milan Pajić, Foreign Trade Association