The Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) is a global multi-stakeholder Association
The organisation was created in 2006 with more than 160 international members of the soy value chain (Producers, Industry-Trade & Finance, Civil Society-NGO).
The objective is to promote the production, trade and use of responsible soy through cooperation in an open dialogue with stakeholders.
The development and implementation of a responsible soy certification standard, committed to zero deforestation and zero land conversion, is one of the tools to verify and support the market transition towards more sustainable practices.
With more than 3 Million ton of responsible soy production, Brazil is the main exporter, followed by Argentina, Paraguay, China, India and Uruguay.
The market uptake initially started in The Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries as they have strong commitments on sustainable developments in their DNA.
Actually, also driven by Europe’s Green Deal, other European countries start to follow responsible soy sourcing practices. It is expected that this trend will evolve towards worldwide commitments as more and more companies are using ‘sustainability’ as a business driver in a society with an increasing environmental and consumer awareness.
RTRS started in 2006 with the development of a responsible soy standard in a multi-stakeholder dialogue and with the certification of producers.
From 2011 onwards, responsible soy became available on the market and buying companies started to commit.
After a strong growth in 2014 and 2015, the association faced 2 years of restructuring and alignment of it’s Principles & Criteria (2016-2017).
In addition, a new strategic orientation was initiated with a focus on regional approaches in critical areas (e.g. Cerrado Biome), strong zero deforestation and zero conversion commitments and a better organized market approach. It led to an increased growth of 30% in 2018 and 40% 2019!
During the next RTRS conference, June 24th and 25th 2020, the RTRS Board will present it’s beyond 2020 strategy.
You are kindly invited to participate in the dialogue and to learn how to increase your impact on transforming our planet with responsible soy production and sourcing.
Looking forward to welcome you!
Lieven Callewaert
Vice-President RTRS