Balsu: Milestone 1 Evaluation

Balsu Gıda, one of the largest Turkish hazelnuts suppliers, joined the FLA Agriculture Program in October 2013. Balsu supplies hazelnuts to several food and confectionery companies, and has its own brand, Hazelnut Republic. Since joining FLA, Balsu has made improvements in supply chain traceability, farmers’ and workers’ engagement, and farm-level working conditions. Through its Responsible Sourcing Program and the B.E.S.T (Balsu, Ethical, Sustainable, Traceable) Program, Balsu aims to achieve the highest traceability and sustainability standards across its supply chain. This report details FLA’s evaluation of Balsu’s governance and internal alignment at the headquarter level (Milestone 1).

Highlights of Balsu for Milestone 1 – Governance and Alignment include:

• Strong Senior Management Commitment and Governance: Balsu has a strong top management and CEO commitment to the FLA Agriculture Program. A 16-member multidisciplinary sustainability team, led by a sustainability group manager reporting to the general manager, ensures strategic oversight of the Responsible Sourcing Program and the B.E.S.T Program and alignment with corporate priority.
• Peer-to-Peer Awareness Building and Collaboration with Civil Society Organizations: Balsu promotes worker protection by participating in platforms with other industry stakeholders, such as the FLA Harvesting the Future Hazelnut Working Group, where leaders collaborate, share resources, and build awareness on best practices. It maintains relations with the Turkish government at the national and local levels, participates in child protection projects, and advocates for improved working and living conditions for seasonal migrant workers through its B.E.S.T Program. Balsu’s public pledges include the elimination of child labor and the promotion of social, economic, and environmental sustainability, and the company shares this information with various stakeholders through its monthly Sustainability Newsletter, published since 2020. Balsu partners with several local and international CSOs to address labor and social challenges in its supply chains, focusing on topics such as promoting child education and summer schools, raising awareness amongst workers, providing financial aid to families, and building capacity for sustainable agricultural practices.
• Worker Engagement: Balsu conducts pre-harvest mapping and direct engagement with seasonal migratory agricultural workers in their communities of origin, before they start to migrate. These efforts ensure Balsu has mitigation measures in place to protect labor rights and helps increase workers’ and families’ awareness on decent working conditions before they arrive to the hazelnut farms.
• Support for Suppliers: Balsu supports and invests in suppliers to improve their capacity and operational excellence. Balsu’s standards outline the allocation of producer premiums to support activities such as child labor prevention programs, personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution, hygiene kits for COVID-19 precautions, and waste management systems in farming communities. To motivate its upstream suppliers, Balsu invests in their farms based on their needs – this includes providing training, distributing agricultural tools, and developing waste management solutions.

To better align with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Balsu enhanced its risk management processes in 2023 to address salient environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and ensure compliance with international standards.