Kellanova and Ahold Delhaize USA Pilot Unique Supply Chain Resiliency Partnership
Kellanova will pilot a first-of-its-kind program with Ahold Delhaize USA to make Cheez-It and Club crackers with regenerative wheat that will be sold exclusively in Ahold’s stores.
Under the program, Kellanova and Ahold are teaming with grain agribusiness provider Bartlett to invest in regenerative agricultural practices among wheat farmers in North Carolina. This wheat will be used alongside conventionally grown wheat in the two cracker brands and used in its Cary, N.C., facility.
The pilot, which intends to reduce Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, is expected to start this summer and have products on Ahold Delhaize shelves next year. It will initially focus on farmers who have already implemented regenerative agricultural practices, with the goal of having them help teach new ones in the future.
As part of this, the companies are teaming with Arva Intelligence to collect and share insights on farm and supply chain resilience by measuring the impact to their respective emissions reductions. The intent is to ideally develop scalable knowledge sharing for other Scope 3 initiatives.
The call for closer collaboration among retailers, manufacturers, and tech providers is not new, but the urgency has increased as companies face the reality of their sustainability mandates. At last week’s Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit, PepsiCo’s CEO Ramon Laguarta pointed to their partnership with Walmart as an example of a program that may require up-front costs but can ultimately result in more sustainable and profitable practices.
For their part, Marc Stolzman, chief sustainability officer for Ahold Delhaize USA, noted in a statement that 95% of the retailer’s emissions reside in Scope 3, underscoring the importance of the program for the company.
