According to the firm’s boss, sustained national compliance to ESG standards would necessitate joint engagements, as well as capacity-building among local stakeholders
By EB Content Studio
Kenyan agricultural producer, Kakuzi, has promised no deceleration in the company’s efforts to ensure ”robust and sound” environmental, social and governance standards.
Speaking at the Fruit Logistica exhibition held recently in Berlin, German, the company’s managing director, Chris Flowers, disclosed continuing plans to bolster and enhance his firm’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, while calling for sustained national compliance and branding to maintain global competitiveness.
Flowers observed that ESG compliance continued to be a point of concern among international fresh produce buyers, noting that failure to adhere to ESG standards would be counterproductive to ongoing efforts to enhance the value of Kenya’s agricultural exports.
According to Flowers, sustained national compliance to ESG standards would necessitate joint engagements, as well as capacity-building among local stakeholders, especially those concentrated on export-led agribusiness ventures.
He pointed out that in order to maintain national competitiveness, upholding ESG standards should be prioritised to make sure all agribusiness firms adhered to global sustainable benchmarks monitored by international buyers.
“For this reason, even as we advance our farm-to-table quality standards, we are reiterating Kakuzi’s commitment to continue maintaining robust and sound ESG standards,” he said, adding that, it was essential to “include capacity-building for our smallholder farmer partners to enable us to secure the social licence to trade and operate.
Flowers noted that commitment to ESG standards has slowly evolved from a voluntary practice to a national and international concern.
“It is not just about growing an avocado, macadamia, blueberry or any other fruit for export. It is how you grow it, and ESG is not a nice thing to have; it is a stakeholder concern that must be firmly embraced as a national branding pillar in the sense that Kenya is a country which understands our responsibility to the causes of climate action, water stewardship and being able to demonstrate that we do the right things as part and parcel of our daily lives.”
Kakuzi PLC is a listed Kenyan agricultural company trading on both the Nairobi and London Stock Exchange engaging in the cultivation, processing and marketing of avocados, blueberries, macadamia, tea, livestock and commercial forestry.
