Geneva/London, 15 February 2022: Today, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and KPMG release An enhanced assessment of risks impacting the food and agriculture sector, which provides updated analysis on new risk dimensions impacting the food and agriculture sector and how companies can best manage these complex, inter-connected risks.
An enhanced assessment of risks impacting the food and agriculture sector presents perspectives founded on insight shared by 12 companies operating in the food and agriculture sector. It presents key clusters of risks associated with the food and agriculture sector, which enables companies to assess how the occurrence of one risk may change the likelihood of a connected risk being triggered. The report also highlights greater severity and speed of onset of risks when viewed as clusters. This enables food and agriculture companies to improve risk management practices by moving beyond traditional approaches that typically focus on impact and likelihood of individual risks.
A network analysis of 20 expert-identified industry risks revealed the following key findings:
- Climate change and episodic events constitutes the risk that determines the overall outcome of the risk network, which makes climate action critical to securing the long-term performance of the food and agriculture system.
- Uneconomical farming is the most impacted and likely risk outcome, and cannot be addressed in isolation. To address uneconomical farming, risk mitigation activities must target a number of different risks that have a positive network impact on other risks.
- Top influential sector risks (i.e., the risks that influence all the other risks in the network) include Food quality & affordability; Disconnect between long-term/short-term interests; and Focus on scale, not diversification.
The report builds on analysis from the 2020 publication to present further analysis from the application of an enhanced risk assessment technique – KPMG’s Dynamic Risk Assessment methodology – to the food and agriculture risk landscape.
The risks associated with the food and agriculture sector are complex, as a key interface between society and the environment. The need to address such risks strategically is reflected in the WBCSD Strategy 2022 – 2027, which identifies food and agriculture as one of six key pathways to transform value chains and solve global sustainability imperatives – climate, nature and equity action – in an interconnected way.