FARM - The private sector committing to food solidarity - “Global business for food security coalition” (23 June 2022)
Against a backdrop of food insecurity and malnutrition which has already been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine is threatening to leave several million more people hungry due to rising prices, Ukraine’s forced inability to produce and sell goods and the risk of a global loss of confidence in agricultural markets.
To address this global food crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on 24 March the launch of the European initiative "Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission" (FARM). This initiative has three pillars:
i) preserving the global flow of agricultural commodities, including by supporting the Ukrainian agricultural sector;
ii) ensuring, with the help of the World Food Programme (WFP), food supplies for the most vulnerable
iii) investing locally to develop sustainable and resilient food systems, particularly on the African continent.
Today, 23 June 2022, a first group of companies and private actors agreed to launch the Global Business for Food Security coalition (GBFS), with the support of France, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, WFP and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Through this coalition, companies commit, each according to their capacity and field of activity, to support the implementation of one or more of the following objectives:
- To support the Ukrainian agricultural sector in its production and export capacities, in line with European efforts and in particular the "Solidarity Lanes" initiative, which sets up logistical routes to restore the circulation of agricultural goods to and from Ukraine;
- To support access to agricultural and food commodities and inputs for the most vulnerable countries alongside the World Food Programme (WFP);
- To support the development of sustainable production capacities and robust value chains in fragile countries, particularly in Africa (in synergy with IFAD’s work and based on needs identified jointly with the local private sector).
With this common roadmap, the coalition calls on all companies that share these objectives to join.
The stakeholders at the working meeting will organize a stocktake in the second half of 2022 to set out the coalition’s concrete progress and identify new private sector commitments.
Annex – List of participants
- Bunge
- Limagrain
- Avril
- Axereal
- Blue Like an Orange Sustainable Capital
- CMA-CGM
- Coface
- Compagnie fruitière
- Danone
- Géocoton
- ALPHA Coalition
- Invivo
- Louis Dreyfus Company
- Roullier
- Soufflet
- Timac Agro
- Vivescia
- Yara
With the support of:
- European Investment Bank
- Bill et Melinda Gates Foundation
