Cereal Supply Chain Management

Cereals and grains, particularly wheat and corn, are important raw materials for several of our food and beverage ranges, including breakfast cereals, pasta and pizza.

Our cereal supply chains are complex and wide-reaching, which can make it difficult for us to have complete transparency of our cereals' origins. We are taking a consistent approach, as with other key ingredients, implementing programs for the implementation of regenerative agriculture practices and aiming to improve farmers' livelihoods.

Key terms explained

Regenerative agriculture
In line with the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, Nestlé defines regenerative agriculture as an approach to farming which aims to conserve and restore natural resources, primarily soil, as well as water and biodiversity, while capturing carbon in soils and plant biomass, and to support farmers’ livelihoods. Examples of regenerative agriculture practices include reduced tillage and agroforestry. More information is available in our Nestlé Agriculture Framework (pdf, 19Mb). Read more about regenerative agriculture.

Our approach to transparency in our cereals supply chain

We source cereals and grains from around the world, with most of our supply coming from countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We buy cereals from commodity traders as well as cooperatives.

We require our suppliers to comply with local laws and regulations and with our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements. To drive industry-wide transparency, we publish the list of our cereals suppliers (pdf, 100Kb) along with their countries of origin.

With greater transparency, we aim to help address the social and economic challenges in sourcing cereals, as well as environmental challenges, such as soil erosion, water quality degradation and biodiversity loss.

Key terms explained

Responsible sourcing
For Nestlé, responsible sourcing means improving the traceability of our ingredients and monitoring how they are produced. This involves applying our environmental and human rights requirements - detailed in our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements (pdf, 2Mb) - at the different stages of our supply chain. Examples of these requirements include that land and resources of Indigenous peoples and local communities are respected and that no deforestation and no conversion of forests and other ecosystems occur in our supply chain. Read more about responsible sourcing.

Soil health and climate change mitigation

Soils are crucially important for the planet. This thin layer, often less than one meter deep, nourishes approximately 95% of the Earth's population, even though they only represent about 7% of the Earth's surface. Their degradation has a major impact on biodiversity and climate change. Improving soil health helps it store more carbon, and contributes to enhancing biodiversity, biomass, water storage and quality.

Since 2018, Nestlé has been working with farmers in northern France to encourage innovative and practical approaches to soil regeneration in vegetable, wheat and sugar beet production. The Sols Vivants (Living Soils) initiative, built with our partner Earthworm Foundation, aims to improve soil fertility and biodiversity while preventing soil erosion and increasing carbon capture.

In Chile, Nestlé Nido has been gradually replacing synthetic fertilizers with biofertilizers in maize, pastures and other supplementary crops. Biofertilizers contain free-living bacteria which promote plant growth, improve productivity by strengthening root systems, and lower production costs and emissions of greenhouse gases.

Our Gerber brand has also partnered with Indigo in the United States. In 2024, participating growers farmed 944 acres of rice in Arkansas and Missouri with regenerative agriculture practices, known to have positive impacts on GHG abatement and water conservation efforts, such as sulfur application, nitrogen management and furrow irrigation with end blocking.