DGAP-News: Ekosem-Agrar AG adopts sustainability strategy and prepares Sustainability Report in accordance with GRI standards

Ekosem-Agrar AG adopts sustainability strategy and prepares Sustainability Report in accordance with GRI standards

• Assuming responsibility as a top 3 milk producer in the world
• Setting standards for sustainable action in the industry
• Definition of four fields of action, roadmap with targets to be achieved by 2026

Walldorf, 19 January 2021 - Ekosem-Agrar, the German holding company of Russian milk producer EkoNiva Group, has completed the development of a sustainability strategy initiated in 2020. As one of the world's largest raw milk producers, the Group wants to live up to its responsibility and help develop standards for sustainable action in the production of milk and dairy products. With the help of a materiality analysis, the project team identified the most significant sustainability topics for the Group based on their relevance for business and taking into account the results of a stakeholder survey conducted in summer 2020 as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

Under the new corporate claim "The Responsible Way of Modern Farming," the Management Board has adopted the following four fields of action for the Group:

- An attractive rural area is our foundation

- Only healthy animals produce healthy food

- Our employees make Ekosem-Agrar successful

- Making responsible use of natural resources

By the end of 2021, the company, which employs some 14,000 people, plans to implement the corresponding organizational structures for sustainability management and to draw up a climate strategy as well as a water strategy; it has also committed itself to reporting in accordance with the internationally recognized GRI standards. The first Sustainability Report is already scheduled for publication in June 2021.

Stefan Dürr, Chairman of the Management Board of Ekosem-Agrar AG: "Being one of the leading food producers and a major rural employer in our Russian home market, we want to help improve the living conditions for the local people and gradually reduce the adverse impact of our business activity as a large agricultural company by taking innovative measures. We will, for instance, develop a special standard for our milk and implement a defined number of construction and development projects in the communities in which our farms are located."

The company has set itself a total of 13 specific sustainability targets. For details on the sustainability strategy, the planned roadmap and the targets, visit https://www.ekosem-agrar.de/en/sustainability/ or see the Sustainability Brochure published today.

Wolfgang Bläsi, member of the Management Board of Ekosem-Agrar AG: "Economic success and the forward-looking use of natural resources have long since ceased to be a contradiction in terms. Right on the contrary, by reviewing our strategy with a view to sustainable development, we also refine and develop our business model. This helps us identify new business opportunities, reduce risks and thus secure our long-term competitiveness."

 

About Ekosem-Agrar

Ekosem-Agrar AG, Walldorf, is the German holding company of the EkoNiva Group, one of the largest Russian agricultural companies. A herd of more than 200,000 cattle (thereof about 104,700 dairy cows) and a daily output of 2,900 tons of raw milk make the company the largest milk producer in the country. The Group controls an agricultural land area of more than 630,000 hectares and is also one of the leading Russian seed producers. The founder and CEO of the company is Stefan Dürr, who has been active in the Russian agricultural sector since the end of the 1980s and has been instrumental in modernizing the industry in the past three decades. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his contributions to the German-Russian Dialogue on Agriculture. The Group employs more than 14,000 people and has a presence in nine regions in Russia. Ekosem-Agrar generated a total output of EUR 565 million and adjusted EBITDA of EUR 167 million in 2019.

Ekosem-Agrar has issued three corporate bonds in the German capital market: Bond 2012/2021 (ISIN: DE000A1MLSJ1), Bond 2012/2022 (ISIN: DE000A1R0RZ5) and Bond 2019/2024 (ISIN: DE000A2YNR08).

Further information is available at: https://www.ekosem-agrar.de/en/

 

Ekosem-Agrar contact

Adrian Schairer // T: +49 (0) 6227 3585 936 // E: [email protected]

Irina Makey // Ekosem-Agrar AG // Johann-Jakob-Astor-Str. 49 // 69190 Walldorf // T: +49 (0) 6227 3585 919 // E: [email protected]

 

Press / Investor Relations

Fabian Kirchmann, Anna-Lena Mayer // IR.on AG // T: +49 (0) 221 9140 970 // E: [email protected]