Fyffes Publishes Second Human Rights Report
Fyffes has recently concluded its third year of human rights due diligence and provided an update to its salient human rights risks in its second-ever human rights report, published today. It includes the findings and results of its third human rights impact assessment (HRIA), conducted by the expert group Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), and the focus areas to mitigate the most relevant human rights risks in Fyffes operations and supply chain. BSR conducted an in-depth assessment in Honduras and Guatemala in 2022, including a site visit to Honduras and two of Fyffes largest and longest business partners in Colombia, Banasan and Uniban.
Fyffes company vision is to shape wellbeing for the world, and the first step in achieving this goal is to have the most ambition across the fresh produce sector in relation to human rights due diligence, including sharing with all stakeholders Fyffes commitments to prevent and mitigate salient risks. Fyffes approach to human rights due diligence follows the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, enshrined in Fyffes code of conduct, the Fyffes Principles.
At the time of publication, Fyffes is the only company in the fresh produce sector to have conducted three years of human rights due diligence. As such, the company is in the position to meet the existing and emerging legislation regarding human rights and environmental due diligence, including the new German Supply Chain Act, the French Vigilance Law, the Swiss due diligence and reporting legislation, and the new European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and Reporting Directives. Fyffes has already established a human rights core team, which will evolve into a human rights and environment committee. It also conducted a Climate Change Risk Assessment during 2022 and, as a next step, will identify the more localised impacts of climate change at individual operations.
Speaking about the publication of today’s report, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Caoimhe Buckley said ‘In sharing our Human Rights Report, our goal is to be transparent with our communities, employees, stakeholders, and customers about the challenges we face as well as our plans to address those challenges. I thank BSR and Fyffes sustainability team, led by Julie Cournoyer, for their leadership in this area, placing us at the forefront of human rights due diligence.’
Fyffes human rights due diligence is supported by the community needs assessments (CNAs), conducted in 2021 and 2022 in over 50 communities surrounding Fyffes farms in Latin America. These assessments involved working with independent experts to survey more than 2,200 people to identify their most pressing community needs, which included access to medical care, jobs and infrastructure. The CNAs also reinforced the salient human rights risks in these locations and provided rich insights on which to prioritise Fyffes community donations and investments.
Fyffes 2022 Human Rights Report can be downloaded here.
