During the second year of responsible soy certification, almost 1,000,000 tons of soy has met the Round Table on Responsible Soy Association (RTRS) criteria for certification.

Reflecting on the success, Jaap Oskam, President of the RTRS, said: “All organizations involved; companies, NGO´s and governments have been of key importance to convert our multi-stakeholder initiative into a reality today”. 

The volume achieved in 2011 following the first year of the RTRS certification, was approximately 450,000 tons. To date 91% the 2011 volume has been taken up by the market. “Our first year of certification can also be seen as a success, especially for the producers who have been given the necessary incentive by the market.”

To date 19 producers and producer representative organizations from Argentina, Brazil, India, Paraguay and Uruguay took the lead by being among the first to go through the process of certification with a positive result. In several other soy producing countries projects are being implemented supporting producers to be able to do the same. Bolivia and China being the countries with the most advanced projects of this type.

“This proves that it is possible to bring together worldwide interests of companies and civil society organizations related to the soy value chain in one solid process to find solutions that are economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sound,”Jaap Oskam said.

For 2015 the objective of the RTRS is to grow towards a volume of more than 5,000,000 tons of certified soy, to supply the growing demand for certified responsible soy from European retailers, brands and feed companies.