Sustainable food production: three questions asked to Violaine Grison, Investment Director at Sofiprotéol

Violaine Grison is Investment Director at Sofiprotéol, Avril’s investment subsidiary. She describes how agri-food companies downstream of the production chain can contribute to the sustainable food system and how Sofiprotéol supports them.  

How do you define sustainable food and what role do you play in it?  

This involves agriculture that takes into account the preservation of our resources over the long term. This focuses on developing a range of new solutions and products that are more environmentally friendly. Innovation related to plant products is intensifying. At the same time, the animal sectors are strongly committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, to animal welfare, and to the sustainable development of their territories.  

Investing in sustainable food production is an area that Sofiprotéol has been committed to developing for quite a long time. We built an extensive portfolio of companies whose projects create value in the broadest sense of the word, not only in financial terms, and this over the long run.  

In particular, what projects are you involved in and which ones are contributing to this? 

 Since 2016, we sought to expand our investments in the downstream agricultural sector, targeting agribusinesses offering mass consumer products. In the vegetable sector, we recently invested in Vegini, a young Austrian company developing meat substitutes made from vegetable proteins. The company is growing rapidly in both Austria and Germany, thanks to the quality of its products and its know-how. In France, we are collaborating with the Laiterie Saint Denis de l’Hôtel (LSDH) group in constructing a plant for producing plant extracts, Atelier INOVé. This facility will produce vegetable extracts used for making vegetable juices and for other applications to be developed. We share with LSDH the same vision of sustainable agriculture and the same commitment to long-term development. Its teams are driven by the same desire to foster employment and local industries, while remaining committed to biodiversity issues. It is our synergies that served as a guide in the realization of this industrial project. The new facility is expected to open in the second half of 2022. 

In the dairy sector, we are very pleased to be partnering with Sodiaal, the acquirer of Yoplait’s European operations in 2021. In this context, we decided in particular to base the remuneration of the quasi-equity we contributed on mutually agreed CSR criteria: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, safety, installing young farmers, and animal welfare. Thanks to its 17,700 livestock farmers, Sodiaal represents 20% of French production, playing a key role in regional development. Sodiaal pledged to set new ambitious targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreements, by joining the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi). 

As a final example, we are also a minority investor in the Brittany-based company Sopral that provides pet food products. Sopral invested €14 million in 2017 to modernize its production facilities in order to increase from 24,000 to 40,000 tons of feed produced. The company is experiencing strong growth, continuing its investments and development, while sourcing more than 90% of its raw material from France without GMOs.  

 What are your convictions regarding your work? Specifically with regard to Avril’s purpose, “Serving the Earth”? 

I am convinced that nothing can be accomplished without trust and a willingness to collaborate. What constitutes our strength at Sofiprotéol and Avril is the interactions between the teams. Our teams are very complementary, with a great knowledge of the food sector, while being very open to discussion and cooperation. “Serving the Earth” is a purpose that resonates with the force of evidence. In a way this is nothing new, as we have always been very close to the soil and the people who value it. Nevertheless, it is also a clear objective encouraging us to always do better. This purpose is an objective guiding us in our considerations, enabling us to formalize a more precise working framework, to take things even further.