Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) needs to deal with as many areas as there are production lines in the company and business. Even if in the fields GRASP is the one who certifies us being socially responsible as far as CSR is concerned for commercial farms, SEDEX, through its SMETA section, looks out for the rights the employees at our production centres.

Let’s get to know SEDEX

It’s a global non-profit organisation of affiliates who take pride in helping to create good businesses around the world. SEDEX has the largest collaborative platform for responsibly sharing data on supply chains, which is used by more than 150,000 affiliates in more than 150 countries, which is why thousands of companies use SEDEX to manage their work on labour rights, health and safety, environment, and commercial ethics.

It works using a digital platform where the provider acquires membership and has to do a self-audit online (SEDEX does not audit or certify on site).

At Grupo La Caña, as SEDEX members due to being suppliers, we can share the information from our audit results with any client, whether a supermarket or supply chains, with whom, depending on their access level, will be able to check our profile and find out the results of our assessments.

After establishing itself as a global reference website, SEDEX creates different specific models, which is the case for SMETA, which evaluates the companies on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and is one of the most used auditing methods world-wide. The procedure for earning this certification is to follow SEDEX’s guidelines, performing an online audit using the platform and sharing your results.

SMETA, best practices

The acronym SMETA stands for (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit) and in a very short time has become a point of reference for the European markets, with a special focus on demand in the United Kingdom, where the regulation has its origins.

SMETA audits are done following the methodology of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) Base Code and they include four modules which cover the values SEDEX works on:

– Health and safety

– Labour standards

– Environment

– Business ethics

SMETA and Grupo La Caña

Grupo La Caña has had the SMETA certification since 2015. Our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility drove us to want to acquire this certification which is closely related to and aligned with our values, even more because we form part of a sector where there is major concern about the CSR policies of the companies which produce products for consumption. Furthermore, we wanted to provide added value to the products we market by looking for ethical attributes, which are increasingly valued by consumers.

Our last audit of SMETA left us truly satisfied, with our results not having any non-conformities. However, what departments are involved in earning SMETA? The whole team at Grupo La Caña and at all levels of the company, although staff in the human resources, production & occupational risks prevention team, or marketing and communication departments, are especially responsible.

At Grupo La Caña we’re aware that getting the same result this year, without any non-conformities, will be difficult, but it’s our big challenge and we’re going to try hard to be able to repeat the audits successfully in our Miguel García Sánchez e Hijos and Eurocastell Caña warehouses.

 How do we get these results with SMETA?

• By rigorously complying with Spanish legislation on labour issues.
• Free association of employees (belonging to unions or creating works councils).
• A strong commitment to Workplace Risk Prevention with our Preventative Culture.
• Collaborating on social projects which work towards labour and social insertion of the most marginalised.
• Providing assistance for regularising the legal situation of immigrants suffering from social exclusion, collaborating in their insertion into the labour market.
• Collaborations with educational centres through work to raise awareness on the traditional agriculture of the Costa Tropical (Tropical Coast), getting across to more young people how important eating fruits and vegetables is for a healthy lifestyle.
• Sponsoring sports, with their values of effort and commitment which we strongly identify with.
• Commitment to the environment, through the work in the warehouse, where we’ve implemented the 5S Plan (full recycling of organic and non-organic material) or to installing solar panels.