6 tips on how to become more socially responsible in the grains, pulses and oilseeds sector

Figure 2: Video of the training programme sponsored by GADC to help farmers to improve productivity

Source: GADC YouTube channel.

Tips:

• When you send your first e-mail to a potential buyer, make sure that you talk clearly about the standards that you meet. You can also add the logo to your e-mail signature to get the buyer’s attention.
• Add a section about your social responsibility to your website. Include your certifications, standards, code of conduct and the projects you do for the community.

2. Tackle key safety risks in your company

Employees need a safe and healthy work environment to do their best work. European companies also expect their suppliers to have good working conditions. If you take care of the safety and health of your employees at work, this will help them, and it will also help you to meet the buyer’s requirements.

Ensure basic safety measures in your facilities

First, make sure that you have taken basic safety measures. When social audits of facilities in the grains, pulses and oilseeds sector show up non-compliance, this is often because basic safety measures are not present. These measures can include:

• A first aid kit;
• Firefighting tools (like a fire extinguisher);
• Emergency exits;
• Clear signs that show the emergency exits; and
• An evacuation plan to get everyone out of the building in an emergency.

Your local laws may already require some basic measures. If not, you can use the ILO’S Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems as a guide. Here are some basic safety procedures for farms and handling facilities of grains, pulses and oilseeds:

• Decide on specific exits from farm buildings, storage facilities and other areas. Make sure that emergency exits are clearly marked and that all workers can get to them easily. Inspect and maintain these exits regularly to make sure that they are always ready when you need them.
• Put fire extinguishers in places where people can get to them easily, and inspect the fire extinguishers regularly.
• Decide on clear evacuation routes out of the building, and set up emergency assembly points where people can come together in an emergency.
• Have danger signs to show where there are overhead electricity cables. This is especially important in places that are close to where tip trucks and augers work. Remove anything that could trip people up or make them hit their heads.
• Make sure that children cannot use ladders.
• Put guard rails on dangerous equipment and conveyor belts.
• Make sure that there are lights so that people can use storage areas safely at night.

You should also teach your workers about potential dangers and emergency procedures. Encourage your workers to report safety concerns or incidents to managers. This will help you to introduce relevant safety measures and avoid accidents.

Keep an eye on common health risks in the grain, pulses and oilseeds sector

There are several health and safety risks for growing and handling grains, pulses and oilseeds. Some of the dangers involve the type of product or the activity itself, and you cannot always avoid them. Other risks are caused by not having enough protective equipment or not training your workers. Find out what the dangers are in your operations, and make a plan to reduce their effects on your workers.

People who farm grains, pulses and oilseeds have a risk of health problems. Skin diseases are the most common work-related diseases. They can be caused by things like contaminated water, bacteria, pesticides, insect stings and prickly plants. Workers who handle grains, pulses and oilseeds have different risks. They are exposed to dust, spores, mycotoxins and endotoxins that can hurt their breathing system. This can cause diseases like asthma and lung infections.

Provide proper PPE

Some of these dangers cannot always be avoided. However, you can reduce the risk of illness by giving workers the right Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Give respirators to workers who handle the grains when there is a serious risk of dust exposure, for example when loading or unloading the grains, when cleaning the facilities or when the grains are being moved. The right ventilation is also an important way to reduce dust-related risk. Ear protection also reduces the effect of loud machines on your workers.

PPE is also important when workers come into contact with pesticides. The type of PPE you should give them depends on the instructions for each pesticide. Make sure that you fully understand which pesticides are being used and what type of PPE workers need.

You should also tell your farmers about clothes that reduce contact with pesticides. They should wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers.

Address mechanical hazards

The machines that are used to handle and process grains, pulses and oilseeds can be dangerous to your workers. This is especially true during maintenance. Conveyor belts and milling machines, for example, can cause serious finger or hand injuries, or even amputation. In fact, when social audits find non-compliance in this sector, it is often because a company does not have the right barriers covering the dangerous parts of necessary machines. This means that there is a risk of injury to the workers.

Here are some ways to reduce the risk of injuries from machines:

• Add physical barriers around the points of operation (for example, the cutting mechanism in a grain mill). This prevents direct contact between workers and the dangerous parts of the machine.
• Shut down or unplug the machines before doing any maintenance or adjustment. This removes the risk that the machine could be accidentally switched on during maintenance.
• Put locks or tags on the equipment to prevent unauthorised or accidental operation. This makes sure that the equipment is shut down or unplugged for the whole time that maintenance is done.

You should understand the processes in your company, see what the dangers are and improve the processes to reduce the risks.

Train your workers

Most injuries that are caused by farm machinery happen when the workers do not understand the machines well. Your improvements to your health and safety processes will only work if you train your workers properly, and if they are committed to following the procedures.

Make sure that your workers understand the health risks if they do not follow the safety procedures or use the necessary PPE. This will help to build commitment among the workers, and commitment is necessary to make sure that the safety measures work.

Organise regular training. The training should include the general safety procedures and the specific processes, for example how to use the machines. Make sure that new workers get this training when they start.

Tips:

• Follow ISO 45001. This is a management system for health and safety at work that aims to reduce injuries and disease at work.
• Check the ILO’s Code of Practice of Health and Safety in Agriculture if you grow grains, pulses and oilseeds, and check the ILO’s Encyclopaedia for Health and Safety Hazards in Agricultural Grains and Oilseeds to find some common dangers and solutions.
• Check the ILO’s Encyclopaedia for Grain, Grain Milling and Grain-based Consumer Products if you handle or process grains, pulses and oilseeds.
• There are internationally recognised food quality and safety standards, for example FSSC22000, IFS or BRCGs, that already include health and safety standards for your workers. If you meet 1 of these standards, this will help you to improve quality, food safety and the health and safety of your workers.

3. Reduce gender inequalities in your chain

If you focus on gender equality, this can help you to meet European buyers’ expectations. It will also help you to keep long-term business relationships in the European market. Start by finding and solving the potential problems in your supply chain. Common issues in grains, pulses and oilseeds include: women having less access to credit, less land, less training and less credit compared to men. Women often receive a lot less money, even if they work on the farm as much as men do.

Help empower the women in your supply chain by helping create cooperatives

Women are an important part of the agricultural force that produces certain grains, pulses and oilseeds like quinoa in Ecuador or fonio in Mali. However, men often control land and wages, because they are in charge of the marketing and most of the production.

When you buy from different farmers, it is very difficult to change the way they work. One way to deal with this is to help to create cooperatives in which women are part of the decision-making process.

As an exporter, working with a cooperative will help you to give more power to women, but it will also help your company. If you want to meet Europe’s quality, safety and sustainability requirements, you need organised and well-trained farmers. If you buy from smallholder farmers, this is only possible through cooperatives or associations.

Give women voice and vote

In the Chimborazo region in Ecuador, for example, women are in charge of the quinoa production. However, men still have more power to make decisions, even if they are not at the farm. Another common problem in cooperatives is that the owners of the land are the only people who can be involved in making decisions. Because women often have no land, they are left out. You can prevent this by introducing different methods that allow women to be involved.

To allow women to share their opinions, you can set up a Women’s Committee as part of the cooperative. This group would speak for women in meetings when decisions are made, and it could also suggest and help with ways to improve women’s lives.

Include women in training

To improve the quality, quantity and compliance of the products of your suppliers, you can support the cooperatives you work with by offering training about good agricultural practices, new machines or good practices for handling and storage. Many women do not have direct access to these types of training.

In Ethiopia, for example, while men can get training from experts from the government, NGOs or the private sector, women get their information through their husbands, neighbours and the community. This information is less complete than the men’s training. One result of this is that women in Ethiopia often grow less productive and less export-oriented varieties compared to men, for example in crops like haricot beans.

Make sure that all the farmers can use these initiatives, and not only the men. This will improve the general performance of the cooperative, and it will also integrate women and give them the knowledge they need to be more efficient.

Tip:

• A social responsibility standard like Fairtrade International will help you to set up a cooperative that aims to improve gender equality. For example, the Women’s Committee is part of this standard.

4. Improve your own operations and get to know your suppliers

It is important to know your supply chain well, so that you can find out if there are any human rights violations or other non-compliance issues with the standards that your buyers want. Look at your company, find out what social issues you can solve, and solve those issues. Then, get closer to your suppliers to start to understand and solve their issues.

Improve your operations

Some of the challenges in agricultural supply chains cannot be solved by 1 company alone. But you have the power to solve any social issues in your own operations. In the supply chain, you are mainly responsible for the social responsibility in your own company, so this is where you need to start improving.

Focus on human rights first

As a direct supplier to a European company, your customer expects you not to have any serious non-compliances with human rights and the health and safety of the people who work directly for you. First, make sure that your operations comply with all the local laws. Then, compare them with the standard that you would like to introduce or with your buyer’s code of conduct.

For example, a common social issue in factories of grains, pulses and oilseeds is that workers do not have the right timekeeping. If you do not record the time that your employees work, you cannot work out if they are working more than they are allowed to by law, and you cannot guarantee that they are getting the right amount of pay. If this is true in your company, you are not complying with most of the codes of conduct that buyers use or with international standards.

This issue is easy to solve. You can simply have a punch clock in your factory. However, as a company, you must also confirm the records of the clock, guarantee that you will pay your workers the right amount and guarantee that they have enough rest time for the hours that they work.

Document all your efforts

Make sure that you record the company’s policies and procedures for human rights and the health and safety of workers. This can help you to show your buyers that you meet their standards. If you do not have any records of this, buyers may not want to do business with you.

Work directly with the farmers in your chain

Many social issues in the grains, pulses, and oilseeds supply chain happen during primary production. However, exporters may not have direct contact with the producers. Instead, they may get the product through intermediaries. This lack of direct contact often means that exporters do not know enough about where the product comes from, its quality or how it was produced, including the situation of the farmers.

Establish direct contact

If you are in this situation, it will be very difficult to be socially responsible and to guarantee the quality you need if you want to export to Europe. You must have direct contact with the producers if you want to have an influence on their economic and social situation.

To set up direct communication with the producers, you can include your current partners or intermediaries. They know the farmers better, they may help you find out about some risks and they may share the information with the producers.

Start checking the working conditions and processes and compare them with your own code of conduct, with an internationally recognised standard that you have chosen or with what your buyers want.

Create a strategy based on the identified risks

There is no single solution that will make your supply chain more socially responsible. After you have identified the issues that need to improve, you must make an action plan to solve them. Take measures to follow local laws and solve serious human rights violations like child labour and forced labour.

Documentation is an important part of the process to improve the social impact of your company with your suppliers. Especially in agricultural chains, it takes time and effort to solve social issues, and your buyers know this. It is very important to keep records of what you do, including your checks of the supply chain and what you do to solve any issues you find. Even if your chain still has unresolved issues, it is good to be able to show that you are trying to solve them. If the issue is not very serious, this may be enough for your buyer.

Tips:

• Check the criteria of some standards in Standardsmap. Check which criteria must be met immediately and start working on those as soon as possible. If you buy from several smallholder farmers, check the standards for Fairtrade. If you have your own farms, compare the SMETA audit, Amfori BSCI and SA8000.
• Help your small farmers to create a cooperative. If you can deal with a cooperative instead of with individual farmers, it will be easier for you to do other things like looking at risks and organising training in good agricultural practices.
• If you are a rice exporter, look at The Sustainable Rice Platform. This platform has standards to guarantee sustainability in the whole supply chain of rice. These standards are internationally recognised by rice buyers in Europe.

5. Comply with international human rights standards

European companies have to follow rules that mean that they are responsible for any human rights violations in their supply chains. This means that exporters who can demonstrate their strong commitment to human rights are more likely to be able to do business with buyers, especially with larger companies.

Some risks for human rights violations apply to all agricultural chains, including grains, pulses and oilseeds. For example, products grown on family farms have the risk of child labour and very low wages, which can cause poverty. Day labourers, seasonal workers and migrant workers also have more risk of working in unsafe conditions.

If your supply chain has these types of risks factors, it may violate more human rights than just these ones. To deal with that risk, and to be able to have a long-term business relationship with European buyers, you should check your supply chain and solve the issues.

For example, ETI Sweden did a study that showed that there is a high risk of child labour and forced labour in the production of sesame seeds in Sudan. The risk factors in this case are:

• smallholder farmers are the main producers, and intermediaries pay them very low amounts;
• there are a lot of immigrant seasonal workers.

The study recommended that buyers who buy sesame seeds from Sudan should check and investigate their specific supply chain, and they should also investigate the risk of buying the seeds from other sources.

However, supply chains are different in different countries, regions and products, so it is important to look at your own supply chain and find out what your own risks are. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has a guideline for responsible agricultural supply chains. This guideline can help you to make your own due diligence plan to find and solve human rights violations.

Source: ETI Base Code / Globally Cool B.V.

Figure 4: Introduction to Ethical Trade from ETI

Source: ETI YouTube Channel

Sustainability requires continuous improvement

If you want to improve your social responsibility, you must always understand what is happening in your operations and your suppliers’ operations. You need to find, prevent, reduce and manage risks. You also need to report regularly about what you are doing to find and deal with these risks. Companies that want to be involved in export activities must commit to this process.

Social responsibility is not 1 single action. It is a way of thinking, and it should affect your processes. For example, if you want to avoid child labour in your operations, it is not enough just to check if all your employees are adults. You should set up your hiring process so that you can guarantee that no children will be hired in the future. For example, you could ask future employees to give you a copy of a document that can prove their age. This will meet the standards, and it will make sure that your company has documents to prove your compliance.

Tips:

• Check the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights framework. The CSDDD is based on these documents.
• Check the guideline on conducting risk analysis as required by the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act to find out how to do a risk analysis of your supply chain.

6. Let your buyer know that you care

Social responsibility is an important issue for buyers of grains, pulses and oilseeds in Europe. If you can show your compliance with this, it can be the main thing that attracts new clients. Let them know that you understand what they expect from you in the supply chain and that you can be a trusted partner.

Create a code of conduct reflecting their own

Many European companies have a code of conduct for human rights protection and other social aspects in their supply chains. This code usually includes important things like human rights (as in the ETI Base Code), compliance with local laws and not allowing unethical practices.

Make your own code of conduct based on the ETI Base Code or on the code of your potential buyers. Your code should show that you comply with their principles. You should not just say that you comply. You should show evidence of your actions. The table below shows the 9 principles of the ETI Base Code and the type of information you should include in your own code to show your commitment to social responsibility.

Table 1: Principles of the ETI Base Code and how SMEs can tailor their own to match the requirements

Principle	Proof of compliance for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries
Employment is freely chosen	If your local laws do not allow forced labour or practices that are related to forced labour, say this, and give the name of the law. Say that you do not keep your workers’ papers and that the notice period in your company complies with local laws.
Freedom of association	If there is a national law that supports the freedom of association, give the name of the law. You should also give the names of any labour unions that your workers are in and talk about any programmes or initiatives that you and the unions do together.
Working conditions are safe and hygienic	If there are local laws about working conditions, say this and give their names. If you comply with any recognised standard that regulates working conditions, for example ISO 45001, include that standard.
Child labour shall not be used	Include any measures you take to actively monitor and prevent child labour in your company and, if possible, anywhere in your supply chain. You should also talk about any ways in which your company supports and helps children in your local community or in your suppliers’ community.
Living wages are paid	Say that you comply with your country’s laws about a minimum wage. Include any extra benefits your company offers. If you want an internationally recognised reference, you can check what the Global Living Wage Coalition thinks is the living wage in your country. If you pay your employees at least the minimum amount that this organisation has calculated, you should also include this.
Working hours are not excessive	Say that you comply with the local laws about working hours, and give the name of the law. If your workers have better conditions than the legal minimum for things like working hours, holidays or other aspects, say this.
No discrimination is practised	Show your commitment to ending and preventing all forms of discrimination in your company. If discrimination is a big risk in your country, you should say this and talk about what you are doing to reduce it. For example, you may have a Women’s Committee or initiatives that aim to employ more people from religious or ethnic minority groups.
Regular employment is provided	Say that you comply with the local laws about formal employment. If you do anything to reduce the number of seasonal workers and increase the number of permanent employees, you should include this.
No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed	If there is a local law that makes it illegal to harass anyone or to abuse someone physically, verbally or sexually, name the law and say that you comply with it.

Source: ETI Base Code/ Globally Cool B.V.

Strengthen the message with your quality standards

Social responsibility standards and a code of conduct are not the only ways that you can show your compliance with social standards. In fact, other standards also focus on certain social aspects. You may even already be complying with some of these standards.

For example, Global Gap for Crops is a standard for good agricultural practices that has requirements for pesticide management and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). If you have a Global Gap certification, this proves your good agricultural practices and it also proves a certain level of health and safety in the working conditions of your farmers.

When you show your quality standards, this also shows the buyers that you have set up the right processes and that you are audited regularly. This gives confidence to the buyers and helps them to trust your social efforts.

You should always include social and environmental sustainability and quality in your marketing materials. These materials include your website, brochures and presentations. Together, they give buyers a complete picture of your company as a qualified partner for European buyers.

Tips:

• Remember that the ETI Base Code may be stricter than your local laws. For example, the code defines a maximum of 48 working hours per week. If your local laws allow for more hours, you should still follow the code.
• Always say how you comply with the local laws. This is often very important in the codes of conduct of European buyers.
• Read the Code of Conduct of Schlüter & Mack, a German importer of organic and conventional grains, pulses and oilseeds.
• Make sure that what you say about your social, environmental and quality standards is right for the marketing materials you are using. On your website, you should have separate pages to talk about the different topics. On product brochures, you can just include the logos of the standards to tell readers that you comply with them.