• Announcement
25. March 2022

Students are the decision-makers of tomorrow. A seminar with three universities raises awareness for sustainable agricultural supply chains.

Two shopping baskets are on the table. In them: chocolate, baby pacifiers, tea, bananas and many other products that are at the end of an agricultural supply chain. Young students gather around the baskets and choose which supply chain they would like to examine more closely.

Such concrete practical examples accompanied the seminar 'Making Global Agricultural Value Chains Sustainable'. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in cooperation with the Initiative for Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains (INA), launched a collaboration with three universities, and so a total of twenty students from the CBS International Business School, the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and the Kuehne Logistics University gathered in March 2022. In the three-day seminar, the international group gained insights into topics such as deforestation-free supply chains, standard systems and living incomes. Speakers from business and civil society included Tony's Chocolonely, GEPA - The Fair Trade Company, SÜDWIND e.V. and Fairtrade Germany.

The aim of the cooperation with business administration and logistics universities is to sensitise tomorrow's decision-makers to sustainability in global supply chains and to provide them with solutions for implementation in their future professional lives. During the seminar, the students discussed all the topics with great commitment and inspiring ideas. On the last day, they presented them at the BMZ in Bonn.

In September, the seminar is to be continued with a trip to a partner country. This way, the students can get a picture on site and get to know the beginning of the supply chain of agricultural products.