Meet our member: LT Foods Limited

1. Tell us about your company, your mission, and why sustainability is important for you?

LT Foods is a 70-year-old consumer foods company that is a leading player in the specialty rice and rice products business across the globe, delivering the finest quality and taste experience in more than 60 countries. The company has an integrated “Farm to Fork” approach from farmer engagement to well-entrenched distribution network with global supply chain hubs.

We are committed to nurturing goodness for people, community and the planet. We constantly strive to take measures to ensure sustainability in all our processes and systems in line with our ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) goals.

We are also to ensuring adoption of SRP objectives throughout our rice value chain while being specially focused on making a positive impact on the lives of our farming partners and the communities in which we are present. We believe that sustainability should be at the core of all practices and the rice that we process, our brands and other products should reflect this commitment.

2. Tell us about your experience as an SRP member. When and why did you decide to join SRP?

LT Foods has been able to implement SRP standards on farmers’ fields under our specialized farmer outreach program. Switching to SRP practices has resulted in increase in farm incomes and a reduction in water, chemicals and fertilizer usage. These practices also have had positive impact on environment and social aspects.

LT Foods officially joined SRP as member in 2017. We were already working with farmers and guiding them on sustainable agriculture practices with the objective of farmers benefits and natural resource conservation. SRP objectives are also serving to promote our company core values which is the reason we are closely aligned with SRP.

3. What opportunities do you see for your company and your value chain stakeholders by being part of the SRP membership?

Sustainability is important right from the farmer’s field to the end consumer. SRP will help us to verify and reaffirm whether our produce is grown sustainably or not. SRP-Verified production helps in generating trust among consumers of our brands.

4. Tell us about your initiatives/projects related to SRP and your involvement with SRP.

LT Foods runs an SRP program in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (India) directly with its own trained manpower. It involves a comprehensive farmer engagement, encompassing, physical, digital and mechanical initiatives to promote sustainability at the farm level.

In 2020, LT Foods became the first company in the world to become Level 3 verified under the SRP Assurance Scheme.

Through specialized initiatives undertaken by LT Foods, SRP standards were implemented in selected districts of Haryana India to improve water use and productivity per drop. The role of LT Foods was to effectively introduce the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standards with a specific focus on water efficiency techniques. The project duration was 2019-2022.

5. Have there been challenges implementing SRP in your company? If so, what challenges have you faced?

LT Foods has already been working with farmers on sustainable agriculture, so that a lot of the practices were already in place – even prior to our adoption of SRP.

With the introduction of SRP, we have become even more focused on water saving techniques like alternate wetting and drying (AWD). We faced challenges in implementation in the initial stages as farmers were used to flood irrigation and it took time for them to understand and adapt to new practices.

8. What is your vision for 2025?

We would like to see in next few years more and more rice products being verifiably sustainably grown.

Find out more about LT Foods Limited:

Website: www.ltgroup.in