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A Success Against Food Waste | JBS, Sanderson Farms, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United News Update

Sanderson Farms to be sold to Cargill and Continental Grain, while JBS acquires aquaculture firm, and Coca-Cola Bottling Company United plans facility investment. Also on Take Five: Great Britain shares its food waste success in a Champion 12.3 webinar.


Quick hits:

  • Great Britain is the first country to pass the halfway mark to the 2030 goal.
  • The U.K. credits its success to starting 15 years ago with research measurement.
  • The 27% reduced food waste equates to 1.7 billion tons less food wasted per year.
  • JBS to buy Huon Aquaculture, Australia’s second-largest salmon producer, for $400 million.
  • U.S.’s third-biggest chicken producer, Sanderson Farms, to be sold for $4.5 billion to Cargill and Continental Grain.
  • Coca-Cola Bottling Company United to invest $42 million at its Baton Rouge plant, increasing the facility’s size to 900,000 sq. ft.

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Read article   Read the transcript below:

Joyce Fassl: I’m Joyce Fassl, Senior Executive Editor of ProFood World, with a report on the food industry’s latest news.

Coca-Cola Bottling Company United plans to invest 42 million dollars, to expand its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bottling facility, adding 120 thousand square feet of warehouse space, and increasing the facility’s total size to 900 thousand square feet. The project will include plant upgrades and new machinery. This expansion in Baton Rouge, follows the company’s earlier announcement that it plans to invest more than 15 million dollars for renovations at its Lafayette, Louisiana, distribution facility. Both planned investments are part of the company’s long-term investment strategy, to meet the growing demand of customers along the Gulf Coast.

JBS has agreed to buy Huon Aquaculture, Australia’s second-largest salmon producer, for more than 400 million dollars. 13 production sites and three value-added product processing units are included in the deal. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year. In March of this year, JBS Brazilian subsidiary, Seara Foods announced it was beginning to distribute products in the fish and seafood segment, with products like salmon, tilapia, shrimp, and others. With the Huon acquisition however, JBS will have its own seafood production.

Mississippi-based Sanderson Farms, the country’s third-biggest chicken producer, has agreed to sell itself for approximately 4.5 billion dollars to Cargill, and agricultural-investment firm Continental Grain. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021, or early next year. Upon completion of the deal, Cargill and Continental Grain will combine Sanderson Farms with Wayne Farms, a subsidiary of Continental Grain. Sanderson Farms will become a private company, and Wayne Farms CEO Clint Rivers will lead the combined company.

Melissa Griffen: Hi, I’m Melissa Griffen, contributing editor for ProFood World Magazine and today on our Take Five video, I’m discussing food waste as a global concern.

To address this issue, the U.N. set 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to be achieved by 2030. These goals are defined in a list of 169 Targets and tracked by 232 unique indicators. The twelfth goal, Responsible Consumption and Production includes Target 12.3, which aims to halve global per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains.

A coalition of individuals, from business executives to government officials to farmer groups, known as Champions 12.3, has come together to mobilize action and accelerate progress towards achieving Target 12.3. The group recently released its 2020 Progress Report.

Champions 12.3 has also posted a webinar on Great Britain’s success in 2020, at becoming the first country to pass the halfway mark to the 2030 goal. In the webinar, Liz Goodwin, senior fellow and director of food loss and waste for the World Resources Institute, explained that Great Britain attained its success by starting 15 years ago with research measurement to determine the what, where, how, and why of food waste in the U.K.

The research found that 70% of food waste comes from households. To get this number down, Goodwin said the U.K. applied the Champions 12.3’s Target-Measure-Act approach. So far, this has resulted in the U.K. reducing food waste by 27%.

Marcus Gover, chief executive officer at WRAP—a charity that promotes and encourages sustainable resource use—explained in the webinar that this reduced waste equates to 1.7 billion tons less food wasted per year, saving £4.7 billion, or $6.54 billion. He further stated that the reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal that of 2.4 million cars.

For more details on how the U.K. achieved its success, check out the full story here. Thanks, and see you next time on Take Five with ProFood World.

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