We believe it is important to outline what we achieved in 2023. You can read our results in the table below and in the following chapters, named after our strategic policy pillars.

Progress on our strategic pillars

We will report in accordance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) from 2026. We are therefore reviewing our processes and the way in which we report. In 2023, we prioritised the revision of our Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) strategy. We are aligning this strategy with the new legislation and regulations at European and national level in the countries in which we have a presence. By working towards a solid ESG foundation, we aim to standardise our sustainability data to enable comparability. As a result, the number of new indicators in this report is limited.

Our market position

Material theme	Quantitative result 2023	2024 reporting target
Strategic innovation	Participation in various (public-private) research projects including in the project ‘kijk op het kalf' (‘Look at the calf’') submitted by SBK and core practice Beef Cattle the for the RVO scheme healthy calf chain.	We want to make the impact of such public-private partnerships measurable and the format of R&D transparent.
Responsible Corporate Governance and Ethics	Number of reports to confidential advisers and SpeakUp whistleblower tool: 2	We are expanding the list of measurable indicators, such as the number of employees working under collective bargaining agreements and the number of confirmed corruption and data security incidents.

Sustainability

Material theme	Quantitative result 2023	2024 reporting target
Circular production	Origin of calves in our Dutch integration in per cent	We make our Organisational Environmental Footprint (OEF) transparent.
	NL: 61% DE: 28% Other EU member states: 11%
Greenhouse gas emissions in the chain	Energy use per calf slaughtered or tonne of calf feed (kWh): 45,6 and. 23,9 respectively.	We will implement emission-saving measures in in the coming years to achieve a 49% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 1990.
	Water consumption per calf slaughtered or tonne of calf feed (kWh): 0,74 and 0,16 respectively.
	Gas consumption per calf slaughtered and tonne of calf feed (m3): 1,63 and 1,16 respectively.

Animal health and welfare

Material theme	Quantitative result 2023	2024 reporting target
Animal health and welfare in the chain	62,2% decrease in antibiotic use from 2007 – 2023.	We are pushing for the information exchange between dairy farms and the veal sector to be improved.
	Implementation of continuous camera surveillance at all VanDrie Group veal slaughterhouses in the Netherlands.	We are expanding the list of measurable indicators to increase the verifiability of our commitment to this material topic.
	99,99% Compliance rate following animal welfare inspections by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) at the four Dutch meat processing companies.

Foodsafety

Material theme	Quantitative result 2023	2024 reporting target
Transparency and traceability	Recalls, number of times a product had to be recalled from a customer or buyer due to a observed deviation from quality specifications: 16	We are expanding the list of measurable indicators to increase the verifiability of our commitment to this material topic.
	99,8% compliance rate based on Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) food safety inspection results at the four Dutch meat processing companies.

Good employment practices

Material theme	Quantitative result 2023	2024 reporting target
Safety, health and well-being of our employees	Sickness absence for 2023: 5,6%	We are expanding the list of measurable indicators to increase the verifiability of our commitment to this material topic.
Attracting, retaining and training our employees	Number of employees 2023: 2700	We are expanding the list of measurable indicators to increase the verifiability of our commitment to this material topic, such as the inflow and outflow, and the number of employees who are working under a collective labour agreement (CLA).
	Average number of years' service: 11,98	We are working on a strategic HRM approach in our Dutch meat processing companies.