From Scarcity to Solutions 2025

COFCO International’s sustainable soy and corn sourcing through innovationCase study 10 COFCO International is the overseas agricultural business platform for COFCO Corporation, China’s largest food and agriculture company. It has operations in over 30 countries, while providing farmers around the world with direct access to the Chinese market via multiple technology and business model innovation. The company has achieved large-scale sustainable soy and corn sourcing, reducing emissions while promoting agricultural production. Technology innovations Soil improvement –Crop rotation systems: Integrates cultivation of sustainable soy and other nitrogen-fixing crops into sugarcane plantations to improve soil health and sugar cane yield, reduce fertilizer dependency and generate additional sources of revenue. Food and water circularity –Use of vinasse by-products: Mineral- sourced, nitrogen-based fertilizers are a significant source of GHG emissions in agricultural production. To reduce the ratio of mineral nitrogen per tonne of sugarcane produced, COFCO International is using organic sources such as nitrogen from vinasse by-products of sugar processing and compost to gradually replace mineral-sourced nitrogen with organic nitrogen. Business model innovations –Low-carbon, nature-positive sourcing strategy: Uses data to prioritize sourcing of soy from regions without recent land-use change (e.g. deforestation and conversion), to enable emissions reduction and protect biodiversity in key sourcing regions. –Sustainability-linked financing: Secured a $600 million Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) 1.5°C loan tied to land- use emissions targets, incentivizing progress on Scope 3 reductions. The loan builds on previous multilateral sustainability-linked loans and includes interest rate discounts tied to sustainability KPIs. –Sustainable trade flows using COFCO’s responsible agriculture standard: Developed a certification framework aligned with the Soy Sourcing Guidelines of FEFAC (the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation) and signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement for the delivery of 1.5 million tonnes of soybean certified under this standard to Mengniu. From Scarcity to Solutions: Food-Water Innovation in Asia and the Middle East 28