In the 2022|23 financial year, AGRANA’s Fruit, Starch and Sugar segments processed a worldwide total of approximately 8.6 million tonnes of agricultural raw materials (prior year: 9.8 million tonnes) and sold about 5.4 million tonnes of high-quality products (prior year: 5.7 million tonnes).
In the year under review, a materiality analysis was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The table provides an overview of internal experts’ assessments of the (positive or negative, potential or actual) impacts of AGRANA’s business activities on the environment and on society (representing the so-called inside-out perspective under the CSRD) in various aspects relevant to sustainability. The impacts were rated numerically in terms of their scale, scope, and remediability in the event of negative impacts, in accordance with the GRI 3 standard or the draft of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) available at the time of reporting.
More than 20 employees from various departments and from all three AGRANA business segments were involved in the process. The presentation of topics is divided into three categories – “Significant”, “Important” and “Fundamental” – depending on the rating assigned. The Fundamental category represents all GRI standards that, while they did not meet certain numerical thresholds in the internal assessment for the AGRANA Group as a whole, are relevant for individual AGRANA business segments or must be reported on in any case due to legal requirements or stakeholder expectations (compliance, governance, etc.). As in the previous years, the most material sustainability topics for AGRANA are:
- Raw material procurement and the emissions from the upstream value chain
- Energy consumption within and outside the organisation and the resulting emissions
- Our employees
- Other highly relevant aspects include issues around water withdrawal (especially at sites at risk in terms of water stress), biodiversity (impacts of activities and products on the variety of life forms) and product stewardship.
In the 2023|24 financial year, the materiality analysis will be developed further with regard to the requirements of the CSRD that will apply in the future.