Austria Juice aims to source 100% of its products from sustainable suppliers by 2030

October 10, 2024 Editor

Austria Juice has set the goal of purchasing 100 % of its products from sustainable sources by 2030.

As a member of the Sustainable Juice Covenant (IDH), Austria Juice is part of a consortium of several large companies in the beverage industry working towards producing all their goods in a verifiably sustainable manner by 2030.

The focus is on sourcing raw materials, fruit juice concentrates, and purees that are verified as sustainable with at least Bronze status through FSA verification or equivalent certifications such as Global GAP or Rainforest Alliance. Additionally, it must be ensured that production and fruit storage facilities undergo a social audit. Austria Juice primarily uses the Sedex SMETA audit for social audits at its sites and the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) for verifying their contract farmers.

Agrana, of which Austria Juice is a part, has been a proud member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI) since 2014. SAI is a global initiative promoting sustainable agriculture. One of the key tools developed by the SAI Platform is the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), designed to measure, improve, and validate sustainability in agricultural production.

The FSA is an evaluation system that helps companies assess the sustainability performance of their contract farmers. It covers a wide range of sustainability topics, including environmental, social and economic aspects.

The FSA provides a standardised methodology to improve and make the sustainability of agriculture worldwide transparent. The evaluation process occurs every three years, starting with a self-assessment by the farmers, followed by external audits conducted on a random sampling basis. At the end of the process, suppliers are categorised into Gold, Silver, Bronze or Non-Bronze tiers.

Austria Juice noted that the demand for sustainable fruit juice concentrates is steadily rising, with customers increasingly seeking products that meet sustainability criteria.

“By implementing the FSA, we ensure our products align with these expectations,” wrote Christiane Hörmann, a sustainability analyst. “From the fiscal year 2018/19 to the end of 2022/23, the percentage of FSA-verified farmers grew from 16% to 40%, underscoring our ongoing commitment to sustainability.”

The FSA verification encompasses about 5,000 direct suppliers in the main growing regions of Hungary and Poland. These suppliers are re-verified every three years, with the re-verification process recently completed in Poland.