Roquette and Royal Canin, part of Mars Incorporated, have partnered with Soil Capital to co-invest in regenerative agriculture across more than 60 farms covering over 4700 hectares in France. The initiative combines ingredient sourcing with shared financial support for farmers adopting regenerative practices.
Partnership with supply and impact
Under the agreement, Roquette will supply high-quality, traceable and safe ingredients to Royal Canin’s European factories. Both companies will also jointly finance a programme implemented by Soil Capital to support the transition to regenerative agriculture within their shared wheat supply chain.
The initiative is the first buyer-supplier co-investment partnership of its kind under Soil Capital’s programme. It aims to strengthen financial support for farmers and encourage wider adoption of regenerative practices. Under Soil Capital’s model, 70 percent of the value of each Soil Capital Certificate goes directly to the farmer.
The partners also addressed differences in carbon accounting methods. Royal Canin uses economic allocation to account for the conversion of wheat into wheat gluten, while Roquette uses mass allocation. Rather than adopting one common method, the companies will use separate accounting frameworks supported by a shared programme and verified data source.
The partnership supports both companies’ efforts to reduce Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, which arise across their value chains. Royal Canin has committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with a 50 percent reduction target by 2030 against its 2015 baseline. Roquette targets a 25 percent reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030 against its 2021 baseline.
Story behind the partnership
The case study titled ‘Co-investing in regenerative agriculture: How Royal Canin and Roquette shared the cost of transition and created a replicable model,’ by Soil Capital highlights the experience of Sébastien Neveux, a cereal farmer in Yonne, France, who manages 330 hectares. After a poor harvest in 2020, he adopted direct drilling and expanded his crop rotation from three crops to around 15 species, including wheat, rapeseed, sunflower, alfalfa, lentils, chickpeas and buckwheat.
Thus, the programme is designed to provide farmers with financial incentives for adopting regenerative practices while giving both companies verified farm-level data for tracking their Scope 3 emissions.
“Partnership is no longer a ‘nice to have’; it is a strategic necessity. This initiative illustrates how supplier–customer collaboration can drive both scope 3 progress and resilience across agricultural value chains,” said Alice Rime, Sales Manager Animal Nutrition chez Roquette.
The companies intend to develop a model that could be replicated across other crops, regions and supplier networks.
