Like other crops, Rubber encounters sustainability and compliance issues in its supply chain. While traceability isn’t the sole solution to these challenges, it’s indispensable. Rubber’s similarities to supply chains, like cocoa, means the opportunity towards knowledge sharing and increased opportunities across sectors.
Building on the successful collaboration in enhanced traceability for cocoa, Farmforce and COCOASOURCE recently announced an expanded partnership. This strategic alliance will see Cocoasource utilising Farmforce’s technology to start digitising its rubber supply chain in the Ivory Coast whilst working towards achieving European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance.
While there are several issues and complexities towards rubber production, harvesting, and movement, we’d like to engage the solutions and opportunities to tackle rubber’s first mile.
Traceability: Using Farmforce to trace the origin of rubber products, verification of sustainable efforts ensures that they come from responsible sources. But how?
- Data Collection
- Compliance Monitoring
- Environmental Impact Assessment(s)
- Labor Management
- Risk Mitigation
- Certification and Auditing Support
Farmforce is a powerful tool for improving sustainability and compliance in the rubber supply chain and enhancing transparency, traceability, data collection, and monitoring. We empower informed decisions and take concrete actions to address the rubber industry’s sustainability challenges.
So, what exactly does the rubber industry face, and what does “transparency” mean?
- Deforestation
- Land-use Conflicts
- Water Management
- Chemical Use
- Ethical Labor Practices
- Sustainable Farming Practices
- Supply Chain Transparency
- Market Demand
- Climate Change
Addressing these challenges requires a combination of sustainable farming practices, responsible sourcing, compliance with international standards, certification programs, and collaboration among stakeholders, including governments, NGOs, and industry players.
Initiatives like the EU Deforestation Regulation are also starting to impact and drive more sustainable practices in the rubber supply chain. But, we see this as only the beginning. Starting with compliance and sustainability efforts, auditing and compliance allow business to flow as usual. These efforts show the pathway to higher yields, human rights improvements, and increased productivity.