Rabobank, a premier global food and agribusiness bank founded 125 years ago and a leading financier of the energy transition, announced the recipients of its annual Rabobank North America Leadership Awards.
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The awards celebrate large corporations and fast-growing emerging companies that are setting the standard for industry stewardship, sustainability and innovation across the food and agribusiness industry as well as the energy transition movement. The awards also recognize companies that are meeting today's global economic challenges and answering the continued call for greater social responsibility and community involvement.
Finalists were evaluated by an independent panel of judges representing industry, academia, non-profits, media and the investment world. Award recipients were determined based on a rigorous set of criteria unique to each category: Excellence in Corporate Leadership, Leadership in Sustainability and Emerging Leadership in Innovation.
Leaders from the three winning companies were honored today during Rabobank's annual Leadership Awards Summit in New York City.
Rabobank Award for Excellence in Corporate Leadership
This award recognizes a large-scale market leader in North America that has generated strong business results while forging a lasting impact on its sector and the world at large. The winner of the 2023 Rabobank Award for Excellence in Corporate Leadership is Taylor Farms.
Taylor Farms is the leading producer of salads and healthy fresh foods in North America with production facilities across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The company is family-owned and based in Salinas, California—"the salad bowl of the world." In 2023, Taylor Farms delivered robust financial results in the face of a challenging economic climate marked by rising input costs, adverse weather conditions, geopolitical turmoil and historically high interest rates. The company has demonstrated ambitious and thoughtful leadership through its food safety and automation efforts, including industry-leading efficiency in processing and logistics.
Amid stiff competition, Taylor Farms' strong year-over-year growth, tangible execution of sustainability efforts and cohesive collaboration with startups and local communities stood out among its peers. On top of that, the work the company is doing to mitigate its environmental impact and to award scholarship funds to the children of its employees demonstrates a steadfast commitment to social responsibility.
Rabobank Award for Leadership in Sustainability
This award celebrates a high-impact organization that has transformed agriculture through its unique products and has encouraged greater business, environmental, social and governance sustainability. The recipient of the 2023 Rabobank Award for Leadership in Sustainability is Campbell Soup Company.
Campbell Soup Company is a Camden, N.J.-based maker of affordable meals, beverages and snacks, which recorded $9.4 billion in net sales in 2023. The company has demonstrated its leadership in sustainability through sustainable agriculture initiatives designed to improve soil quality, biodiversity, climate resilience and access to water resources while making farming more productive and profitable. To reduce greenhouse gases, the company has set science-based targets to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions 42% by fiscal 2030 and reduce Scope 3 emissions by 25% within the same time frame.
Campbell Soup Company also works to strengthen and empower their communities through increasing food access, encouraging healthy living and nurturing neighborhoods. In 2021, the company launched Full Futures, a five-year, $5 million school nutrition program to ensure that all students are well-nourished and set up to thrive. Some other key sustainability accomplishments include commitments to animal welfare, improving packaging to increase recycling and reduce plastic waste as well as establishing new metrics to measure nutritional performance, affordability and accessibility.
Rabobank Award for Emerging Leadership in Innovation
This award honors a fast-growing young company that addresses issues in the food and agribusiness space in a new, innovative way. The 2023 Rabobank Award for Emerging Leadership in Innovation was presented to Full Harvest.
Full Harvest is the first business-to-business (B2B) produce marketplace that connects farmers with produce buyers that have expertise in reducing on-farm food loss while improving profitability. Since inception, the San Francisco-based company has sold more than 125 million pounds of produce—mostly surplus and imperfect fruits and vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste. In the process, the company has saved nearly 4 billion gallons of water and 20 million kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions.
