As Brussels presses pause on the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the UK feed industry is preparing to launch a major home-grown solution.
The Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), the UK feed industry representative body, has confirmed that it is launching its Sustainable Commodities Scheme (ASCS) this week, which it maintains provides a long-awaited, unified route for UK feed businesses to demonstrate compliance with both the EUDR and the UK Soy Manifesto.
The scheme lands at a moment of rapid change. While EU lawmakers last week agreed to delay implementation of the EUDR to 30 December 2026, supply-chain signals are tightening from 2026, some processors and retailers aligned with the UK Soy Manifesto are expected to request EUDR-aligned feed.
For UK and Northern Irish businesses - particularly those exposed to EU-facing trade - the need for credible assurance frameworks is becoming urgent, notes the AIC.
A single standard for a fragmented landscape
After two and a half years helping members digest the implications of the EUDR, AIC says the ASCS was developed directly in response to industry calls for a common, feed-specific compliance mechanism.
The new certification scheme is designed to eliminate the proliferation of overlapping sustainability demands from downstream customers.
Open to both AIC members and other eligible participants, the ASCS covers a wide range of forest-risk commodities and is structured around two core modules:
• Module One: Demonstrates alignment with EUDR requirements from origin to UK, aimed at importers.
• Module Two: Applies to feed mill operators and requires accounting for flows of EUDR-aligned commodities in and out of mills, enabling mass-balance storage of aligned and non-aligned soy within a single bin.
The roll-out includes test audits in Q1 2026, with full certification bookings opening in late Q1 and Q2 2026.
“This is an important milestone for delivering deforestation-free supply chains while avoiding unnecessary cost and complexity,” said James McCulloch, AIC head of feed. He credited member working groups and wider sustainability partners for shaping a scheme that is “both pragmatic and robust.”
Efeca, the Secretariat to the UK Soy Manifesto, called the scheme’s publication an essential step in helping signatories communicate and verify deforestation- and conversion-free soy across “complex, multi-tiered supply chains.”
Efeca also signaled interest in expanding the scope to cover all land conversion associated with soy production.
The ASCS launch follows a provisional agreement by the European Parliament and Council to simplify and delay the EUDR, postponing enforcement for all companies until the end of 2026, with an extra six months for small operators. The Commission will also review the law’s impacts early next year, exploring a ‘simplification’ review.
Bunge and ForFarmers claim new soy sourcing benchmark
Despite the delay, the commercial momentum toward verifiable, low-carbon soy continues to build. In the latest sign, Bunge and ForFarmers have announced a new strategic supply partnership intended to establish a large-scale, low-carbon, deforestation-free soy flow.
The partnership will initially supply nearly 100,000 tons of soybean meal into the Netherlands, using a sourcing model that meets ForFarmers’ strict threshold of below 750 g CO2e per kilogram of soybean meal delivered, a standard that, in practice, requires soy that is almost 100% 20-year deforestation-free.
ForFarmers estimates that this sourcing model reduces the carbon footprint of South American soy by approximately 80%, offering a substantial opportunity for livestock farmers to shrink the feed component of their dairy, meat and egg footprints.
Blockchain-verified chain of custody
A core feature of the new supply flow is blockchain-based traceability, which will prove and monitor both the movement of soy through the supply chain and the primary data underpinning its sustainability credentials - most importantly its 20-year deforestation-free status.
All lifecycle assessments (LCAs) used to determine the carbon footprint are certified and verified, following a mass-balance chain-of-custody system. This structure feeds directly into ForFarmers’ ESG reporting and customer communications, supporting customer-level sustainability metrics that increasingly influence procurement criteria.
Regenerative agriculture practices built in
While the long-term deforestation-free requirement is the most important criterion today, supplying farms are also implementing regenerative practices encompassing soil health improvements, diversified crop rotations, fertilisation strategies and crop protection approaches. These primary data points will be incorporated into the soybean meal’s carbon footprint (CFP) and other sustainability indicators as the programme matures.
Scalability hinges on market reward
The companies aim to expand this sourcing model to the UK, Germany and Poland. However, ForFarmers stresses that full scaling will depend on value-chain willingness to recognise, and financially reward, the additional value created by fully traceable, low-carbon, deforestation-free soy.
“This collaboration shows how we can respond to market developments and expectations across the value chain,” Ilse Niehof-Duivelshof, director of corporate affairs & sustainability at ForFarmers, told this publication. “But ultimately, this additional value must be acknowledged and rewarded by the market.”
Designed to align with EUDR
The initiative is structured so that once the postponed EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) finally enters into force, the soy stream will already meet its traceability and deforestation-free requirements.
Both the ASCS and the Bunge-ForFarmers initiative underline the same trend: with regulatory clarity still in flux, European and UK feed companies are moving ahead anyway, investing in data-rich, verifiable supply chains to meet customer expectations and future compliance head-on.
