Experts discuss organic production and carbon footprint reduction

The Prodexpo 2022 International Exhibition for Food, Beverages Food Raw Materials at Expocentre Fairgrounds hosted the Panel on Low-Carbon Transformation of Small Suppliers: How Retail Chains Can Help Producers and Earn a Big Plus in ESG Karma as part of its conference programme. The acronym ESG stands for a combination of environmental responsibility with social policy and corporate governance. 

The panel, held in a hybrid (face-to-face and online) format, was organised by the National Ecoresource Union of Organic Producers, Imperia and Agroprompark Organic Vill. 

In a video message to the participants of the event, Sergey Mitin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management, noted the importance of the topic under discussion. According to him, the Federation Council pays special attention to the development of the organic market, the problem of environmental protection and the implementation of sustainable development principles in all regions of Russia. Rational use of forest food resources is of strategic importance in solving these state tasks. The raw material potential, production capabilities in the field of harvesting and processing of wild crops are not fully used today, the senator stressed. 

He cited official figures, according to which the biological reserves of the most common wild-growing products (nuts, fruits, berries, mushrooms, birch sap) reach 13 million tonnes, while the exploitable reserves exceed 7 million tonnes. 

Yuri Rudakov, President of the National Ecoresource Union, Denis Raksha, founder and CEO of Neocon Expert Consulting Company, Irina Mitrofanova, Director of RBC Publishing House, Valery Maltsev, Head of the Committee on Environmental Development of the Russian Public Relations Association, and others discussed trends in the development of organic production in a sustainable development paradigm and ESG transformation and corporate strategies to reduce the carbon footprint by working with suppliers. 

Special attention was paid by the experts to the importance of interaction between the state, development institutions and big business in providing small and medium-sized enterprises with resources and methodology in ESG transformation. The chances of symbiosis between big and small businesses in the transition to a carbon-free economy were considered, as well as the role of the state and the media in promoting such interaction.   

The panel participants highlighted the particular importance of training and development programmes for suppliers of wild and organic products in the context of carbon footprint reduction objectives of chain retailers. 

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO