Our passion for creating the highest quality product goes hand in hand with BALSU’s principles of social responsibility. We have a set of guidelines embedded in our company’s DNA that represent our dedication to the people we serve and work with the communities in which we operate and to the planet to which we belong.
Social Responsibility
Responsibly
Sourced
Hazelnuts
Caring the social responsibilities as much as the financial goals, BALSU is committed to fulfilling all of its duties by offering the clients products of the highest quality and freshness. Meanwhile it is ensured that raw materials are responsibly sourced and the environmental impact is minimized through innovative and good agricultural practices. Furthermore, local communities are developed through numerous projects undertaken in collaboration with the relevant ministries, local and international NGOs, universities and other stakeholders.
Sustainability
BALSU takes a multi-sided approach to driving sustainability in the supply chain by promoting social, economic and environmental sustainability, product traceability, and occupational health and safety measures. We are committed to working with suppliers that support our principles of social responsibility through continuous improvement.
In accordance with our mission to develop local villages socially, economically and culturally, we initiate various training programs for farmers. We provide education on good agricultural practices to sustainably increase yield, quality and income, and encourage ethical recruitment processes in the field level.
In A Nutshell
With the conviction that every child should be protected from any form of exploitation, BALSU has cooperated with “Genç Hayat Vakfı” (Young Lives Foundation) even back in 2008 to tackle the root causes of child labour in Turkey. Through the foundation’s “In A Nutshell” project we opened summer schools that improve children academically, as well as socially to prevent them from working in hazelnut gardens. Keeping in mind that 1 out of every 2 child workers drops out of school completely, we provide the children in our project with financial aid for each school year whilst tracking their attendance in order to maintain their academic development. We also provide them food, school supplies, and various aid packages.
Until 2022, we have supported 11-17 years old 229 children’s education by giving them scholarship after reaching them in hazelnut crops and in other events.
We support the abolition of child labour, forced labour and coercive labour throughout our entire production chain. We do this through legal means, close ties with local communities and regular monitoring of suppliers, aiming to act as a sustainable development engine for these local communities.
Research tells us that “safe spaces” are among the top interventions in supporting children in harvest communities and in reducing the risks around child labour. For these, we have updated our model for it to be replicated and scaled up to reach greater number of children in the supply chain. Through our collaborations on the summer schools’ program, we provided access to education for the “5427” children of workers between 2014 and 2020. Over 12,000 thousand farmers and hazelnut workers received trainings.
A More Sustainable Supply Chain
We carried out activities in the Black Sea and Southeast regions to enhance the transparency of our supply chain. Also, we have communicated our company standards on labor rights to various stakeholder groups between 2016 – 2018 through USDOL project.
- 219 Labor contractors mapped
- 89 Labor contractors registered
- 256 Community members
- 139 Government officials trained
- 123 Teachers trained
While addressing systemic issues like child labour that requires a multi-stakeholder approach, we partner with the government, the industry, our clients, NGOs and academia; we develop supply chain trainings; promote community capacity building and investment in order to:
- Protect human and children rights
- Sustainably increase crop and yield
- Preserve the environment
Verification and Continuous Progress
BALSU is a Rainforest member since 2014. Every Rainforest certified product is grown in accordance with the Code of Conduct, which sets guidelines for better farming methods and working conditions, as well as better care for nature and for future generations. To ensure compliance with the Code, all producers are subjected to a regular check by independent auditors. Upon approval farmers are granted a certification, which means they can sell their products as Rainforest certified, and all sales are recorded in the Rainforest certified traceability systems. The Code of Conduct is based on a model of continuous improvement.
BALSU is affiliated with the Fair Labour Association since 2013. As being an affiliated supplier in the FLA’s program, we believe that all goods should be produced fairly, ethically and industries should find sustainable solutions to systemic labour issues. Since 1999, FLA has helped improve workers’ lives by holding affiliated companies accountable for implementing FLA’s Code of Conduct across their supply chains. We conduct annual third party internal and external assessments as part of the FLA affiliation program, so that our customers can be assured of the integrity of the products they buy.
We certify farmers under the Turkish Good Agriculture Practices standards and requirements in terms of hazelnut safety, quality, environmental management and workers’ health and safety with the Turkish GAP certification provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest since 2016. Good Agricultural Practices are a form of agricultural production aimed at manufacturing an environment, human and animal health friendly agricultural product. The product must also adhere to the protection of natural resources, traceability in agriculture, sustainability and food safety regulations farmers receive state supported grants per hectar.
A Few of Our Projects
Raising awareness for workers’ rights
We go beyond monitoring workers’ rights and working conditions in supply chains to meet their human rights obligations. Since 2010, we have been supporting hazelnut farmers and seasonal workers, and improving conditions in the hazelnut supply chain. BALSU’s "Improvement of Living and Working Conditions of Seasonal Agriculture Workers and Prevention of Child Labour" project has been awarded the Jury’s Special Award at the Corporate Social Responsibility Award Ceremony organized by the Turkish Employers’ Union in 2019.Getting children off the fields
We open summer schools in hazelnut sourcing villages for children between 5-15 ages in cooperation with the Genç Hayat Vakfı. According to the social impact assessment conducted by Fair Labor Association in 2018, we have achieved both an increase in the number of children attending summer schools since their establishment in 2014 and a downward trend in the number of children working in the hazelnut gardens.Summer schools fill a gap by providing a safe environment where children are supervised and their basic needs are covered while family members work in the hazelnut gardens.
Empowering women
BALSU’s Strong Women, Strong Agriculture program occupies a unique place among our initiatives. We have aimed to reach more women to combat child labour with this project.
The training programs in the project are contributing to social compliance topics. It has been demonstrated that female farmers, who are empowered in economic and social life, become leaders for sustainable development and are representatives of change.Engaging with stakeholders
We are happy to share our experiences and program details transparently with all the stakeholders. We believe that systemic sectoral reforms can only be achieved through working together.We aim to contribute responsible sourcing activities of hazelnuts in the Black Sea region through engagement with multi-stakeholders. Protocols have been initiated with the ministries, hazelnut exporters associations, producer associations, local governments, municipalities, chamber of commerce, universities and nongovernmental organizations.
Caring for the environment
We support farmers to improve farming practices for conserving natural ecosystems, improve climate adaptation and resilience.Hazelnuts are strongly affected by climate change and although the carbon footprint of the hazelnut production is low, it can still give way to environmental problems. Farmers are provided with best training to increase the yield and quality, reduce pollution to the environment, and increase biodiversity.
Farmer programs
BALSU’s agricultural engineers and social experts work with passion to improve the working and living conditions of the hazelnut workers and the agricultural practices of the farmers.Through practical training sessions on the field, we provide assistance for individual needs and increase the adoption rates of farmers. We encourage farmers to implement agricultural practices in a scientific manner and use data analysis in order to reduce input costs and increase the yield and quality of the products while protecting the environment.
Steps towards precision farming
At BALSU we have set up meteorological stations that measure the parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall, leaf and soil moisture in “model gardens.”These stations, which enable farmers to make informed decisions about crops and field activities, are strengthened with a software program to activate early warning systems.
Occupational health and safety
At BALSU we have set up meteorological stations that measure the parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall, leaf and soil moisture in “model gardens.”These stations, which enable farmers to make informed decisions about crops and field activities, are strengthened with a software program to activate early warning systems.
Traceability
Hazelnut deliveries are traceable back to the farm level with certified farmers. Collection of farmer baseline information and recording the data is possible (farmer’s name, contact number, estimated production, address, GPS data, production information on input use, calibration, yield and quality measurements, harvest profile, workers’ information).Carbon Footprint
Based on the best scientific information, to oppose the threats of the climate change an efficient and a progressive response is needed. With ISO 14064 it’s provided to transform the scientific information to the tools that handle the climate change.
As BALSU, by verifying GHG emissions with ISO 14064 as of 2020 in line with our “2050: Net Zero” objective we have started working on science-based goals to reduce GHG emissions for scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3. Moreover, BALSU demonstrated that it has neutralized electricity consumption within Scope 2 through the IREC certificated solar and wind plants.
Sustainability Report and Newsletters
