Interventions are needed for a resilient food chain

Your companies represent crucial parties in the food chain. What is your biggest challenge?
Holt: ‘Scope 3 emissions. For us, this involves hundreds of thousands of products on the shelves, tens of thousands of direct and hundreds of thousands of indirect suppliers. The scale is therefore immense. We want to play a role in the transition, but it does not always fall within our direct sphere of influence. Collaboration with all parties in the chain is therefore crucial. We see that especially small and medium-sized businesses and smaller farmers need support. The level of progress also varies greatly per country. That is why we have set up special programs to support our suppliers in making their businesses more sustainable and mapping their footprint.’
De Vreede: ‘Our story is similar. We work with around 100,000 direct and indirect suppliers. We cannot do it alone and neither can we tackle everything at the same time. One of our spearheads is to stimulate regenerative agriculture, where, for example, the soil is not depleted by monoculture, for products which we use in huge volume, such as soy. We have committed to having at least one million hectares of agricultural land regeneratively cultivated by 2030. With a roadmap of over 50 projects and the goal of having implemented 650,000 hectares for our foods business by 2027, we are well on our way, but it is currently more attractive to do this outside Europe than in Europe itself, simply because the costs are higher here and it is therefore more difficult to sell to consumers and shareholders. In my opinion, part of the European subsidy for farmers should be used to stimulate regenerative agriculture and thus achieve scale, because sustainability loves scale.’
Peerbooms: ‘For us too, scale is often a hurdle. When it comes to food, our ingredients are always a replacement for something that was already there, that has the same function and is often cheaper. In discussions, we try to convince our partners in the chain that our alternative is more sustainable and can help to reduce their scope-3 emissions, but there is always an element of timing involved. We approach partners in the chain with our new and small-scale produced ingredient at a relatively high price. That partner is willing to participate provided we can supply 20,000 tons, but scaling up usually takes several years. How do you arrange a three-year contract with a company that has to report to its shareholders every three months? We often end up in that circle.’

What needs to happen to accelerate sustainability in the chain?
De Vreede: ‘It starts with the farmers and growers. They need to adapt their way of working, but that requires investments in advance. Education about what regenerative agriculture is and how to approach it costs money, as does access to measuring instruments that can calculate the effect. Moreover, the transition to regenerative agriculture usually causes a dip in yield in the beginning, while those farmers and growers need some economic security. We will have to help them with that. In our projects, for example, we make agreements about guaranteed purchase of a certain volume, and we look for alternative buyers for the cover crop that is needed to protect the soil. That is why we have created the Unilever Climate & Nature Fund, together with two financial partners, with a billion euros to help with pre-financing and support in improving soil health on their farms.’
Holt: ‘Albert Heijn’s Better for Nature & Farmer program is similar in design. We make agreements with our partners in the chain on animal welfare, biodiversity and sustainability, among other things, and help them with a sustainability premium and long-term collaborations to facilitate the additional investments. To accelerate further, we have now placed the program with an independent foundation, so that everyone who meets the conditions can be certified - including farmers and growers who supply other supermarkets and producers. By opening up programs that offer farmers and growers certainty and support to the market, you can create momentum in the chain.’
Peerbooms: ‘Over the past ten to twenty years, there has been significant emphasis on efficiency in the food chain, with numerous specialized intermediaries that each play their own role. You really need a long breath to break through that. An example is our AlgaPrime DHA, an omega 3 product that we make by growing microalgae in fermentation tanks, as an alternative to fish oil. People think that omega 3 is in fish, but it is in fact in the algae that fish eat. What people also do not realise is that around a million tonnes of fish oil is used in aquaculture, to farm fish. We have the technology to produce omega-3 without taking fish out of the ocean, and we can offer stable prices. This product provides clear value and positive scope 3 impact for salmon farms and retailers, but we do not sell our product directly to them. The traditional supply chain presents several challenges to communicating the value of our product. To break through that, we need to make it clear that we are not simply making yet another raw material, but a sustainable and high-quality source of omega-3 DHA. It also means that we need to employ people with deep knowledge of the chain.’

The role of the European Union was already briefly discussed. What political action do you need when it comes to the food transition?
Peerbooms: ‘We need a long-term vision on how Europe wants to stimulate sustainable food production. Only when that is clear can we take concrete measures, such as taxes on less sustainable products or subsidizing sustainable initiatives. If companies and consumers understand that vision, it will ensure a much greater buy-in than is currently the case. It also creates a stable situation for investments in sustainability.’
De Vreede: ‘You should indeed not set a course and then suddenly back down, as is now happening due to the geopolitical context surrounding CSRD and CSDDD. Of course, the reports can be simpler, but the level of ambition should not be lowered. As these directives are being called into question again, you see that many companies are starting to hesitate, while there is no time to hesitate. We need to move forward. The way the food industry currently produces, transports, and consumes food accounts for thirty percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, so we simply cannot continue to do business as we do now. Interventions are needed to create a resilient, agile European food chain. For example, why not require companies to use three, five or ten percent recycled plastic in their packaging? If we start small enough – so that everyone can participate – we can gradually grow upwards.’
Holt: ‘It is good that Europe still has a growth strategy. The big question is how to achieve goals in a sustainable way. Rules and guidelines can help to change the system, and I see opportunities particularly in stimulating innovation. We are very good at that. In times of disruption and dreadful events, a company needs to be able to deal with challenges. The dramatic war in Ukraine has had a huge impact, also more broadly in Europe. Higher energy prices have also been a catalyst for accelerating renewable energy. Covid has fundamentally changed the way consumers shop. We need to seize the current geopolitical developments as new momentum to accelerate innovation.’
De Vreede: ‘Thanks to innovation, a small country like the Netherlands was able to become the second largest exporter of agricultural produce globally. Innovation is certainly no longer our country’s strong point, especially due to the decline in investments in research & development. What we have built up with the university in Wageningen is fantastic, but it depends heavily on knowledge from the past. We need to continue to pay attention to investments now and in the future.’
Peerbooms: ‘In fact, Wageningen’s success with its enormous focus on efficiency is almost preventing us from taking the next step. For example, we will have to talk about CO2 pricing. Of course, that is a sensitive issue in the global context, but we absolutely need to discuss it, especially around food. Otherwise, we will be very busy with all sorts of things, but we will achieve very little.’

Intervention in the food chain is a sensitive issue for politicians, producers and consumers. Think of the fuss that arises when it comes to a meat and sugar tax. How do you view this from your role?
Holt: ‘We need to convey a message that resonates with consumers and make the offer as attractive as possible. Obesity is increasing worldwide. People want healthy options but often do not have the knowledge or the money, or they opt for convenience. It is possible to address these three issues. And if you can convey the message that less meat or sugar is good for your health and that message is embraced, the fact that it is also better for the climate, is an added bonus. That is why labels such as the Nutri-Score on packaging are so important – because they give consumers the information and choice for a healthier option. In the Netherlands, 43 percent of people now eat one or two vegetarian meals per week. With our product range, we want to help more customers make that shift.’
De Vreede: ‘Consumers know very well what they want. Health and price are elements of that, but ultimately food is always about taste. We once made a plant-based sausage that simply did not taste good and was therefore not bought. We are constantly trying to remove as much sugar, salt and saturated fats as possible from our products, but in a way that does not make the consumer feel cheated. For me, success is not that there is a sustainable product on the shelf that no one wants to buy. Consumer behaviour will only shift when a sustainable product tastes good, is affordable and is approved by the entire family at the table - and not because it is forced upon them by politics or industry.’
Peerbooms: ‘I have a problem with the fact that the sugar tax is focused mainly on the industry, as if we are deliberately making people dependent on sugars. Taste is indeed the key word. If there are no good alternatives, a sugar tax will only ensure that prices increase, and products become less accessible to many people. We acknowledge our responsibility to offer alternatives by developing innovative products, but that must go hand in hand with a long-term political agenda that makes it possible to invest in this while also achieving economic returns.’

Let us bring this back to your own leadership. How do you see your own role in the food transition?
De Vreede: ‘In my opinion, leaders must encourage innovations and interventions that point the way to the future, both when it comes to sustainable products and finding the right collaboration models and partners in the chain. That is a matter of being consistent, persevering and growing slowly. When I leave one day, my successors must see that those innovations generate money for the company because the result is gratifying to the retailer, the consumer or other parties in the chain.’
Peerbooms: ‘If you want to stimulate sustainability, it is better to start with the small things than to set corporate targets which no one is committed to. We bring it back to the shop floor by awarding a quarterly sustainability to a business unit that has achieved something special. In this way, we try to encourage employees to think creatively. If they view our company in this way, they will also do so in their formal roles in sales, research or whatever. Spreading the word starts with stimulating discussion.’
Holt: ‘Sometimes we want to solve problems that are too big and wait for that one breakthrough, while it is also important to keep it small and look at what you can do now and in the next five years. With that in mind, for example, we launched climate hubs for our European brands last year, online platforms where suppliers can gain insight into their CO2 emissions and are supported in starting their decarbonization journey step by step. We make it available to everyone via open source, because it can help change the system. I firmly believe that perfection should not stand in the way of ‘good.’ Sometimes you need to start small and simply keep moving forward.’

This interview was published in Management Scope 04 2025.