In 2022, Parceval completed two important sustainability audits. The first was a FairWild audit, where certification was achieved for an external supply chain for a wild harvested species from the Eastern Cape.

The second was a comprehensive audit conducted at Parceval’s farm, Waterkloof, for a range of medicinal plants for our own processing as well as an external supply chain from wild harvest on a certified organic farm under the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) standards.

Both audits for the external supply chains were initiated by our international clients for whom it was important to prove for themselves and demonstrate to their clients that the products sourced from Parceval satisfy the highest demands on sustainability and ethical sourcing. Both standards work on an incremental achievement of compliance to their standards over a period of three years.

The audits critically look at all aspects of compliance of the supply chains including labour law and practices, harvester training and impact monitoring of the harvest, compliance to Nagoya Protocol and respecting customary rights and many other details.

In the past the guiding principle was “do no harm” or being carbon neutral when working on the farm or with wild harvests. This is now slowly shifting towards leaving a better place than it was before the harvest. This can include training on aspects of biodiversity and sustainability or assisting the harvesting community with some financial support via the FairWild premium.

These kinds of audits will become more and more important going into the future – in fact we have a UEBT verification for two additional external supply chains coming up for April this year. Whilst we are by no means perfect yet, a good start has been made. We are also grateful to our partners in the external supply chains to cooperate on this high level!