Sourcing our raw materials

Consumers and stakeholders increasingly want to know what is in their food, where it comes from and how it is made. Our responsible sourcing activities help provide that information, ensuring the integrity and sustainability of our business and providing a foundation for compliance for our raw materials.

We work directly with over 700 000 farmers globally and many more are in our supply chain. The farmers and their many workers are critical to a secure, long-term supply, and to our success, but our supply chains can be complex, with many difficult and sensitive challenges.

Our work towards achieving traceable and responsibly sourced ingredients focuses on 12 priority categories. These represent the items we source in the largest quantities or which are most important for us. Sourcing is in compliance with our Supplier Code (pdf, 2Mb) and Responsible Sourcing Guideline (pdf, 2Mb) (RSG) criteria. The RSG sets out detailed requirements, focusing on critical social, environmental, economic and animal welfare challenges that can affect supply, livelihoods and sustainability in our sourcing activities.

Watch our video to find out more about responsible sourcing at Nestlé.

Farmer Connect

Farmer Connect is our unique sourcing programme, through which we work directly with farmers. Located within our responsible sourcing activities, Farmer Connect helps ensure the supply of high-quality agricultural raw materials, and provides traceability back to farm level. Through it, we engage directly with farmers to develop supply chains that meet our social, environmental and ethical requirements. Farmer Connect enables us to take responsible sourcing one step further, by working with farmers to support sustainable developments in agriculture

Our priority categories

Our work towards achieving traceable and responsibly sourced ingredients focuses on 12 priority categories – the items we source in the largest quantities or which are most important for us. Follow the links for each category for more detail: