"An assessment of the environmental and social transparency of food companies currently listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange", Oct 2017

…Oxfam Hong Kong commissioned CSR Asia to conduct a benchmarking exercise to assess the Environmental and Social transparency in the food, beverages, and agricultural products sectors in Hong Kong…Overall, the level of disclosure by the 61 companies is relatively low and indeed they were failed. Only 3 companies achieved over 30 points and 55 of the companies scoring below 20 points. This may seem disappointing at first but it should be recognized that the GRI indicators are very comprehensive and that most companies in Hong Kong are a long way from being able to report on them. Companies demonstrated weak performance in both categories in which the average score of social and environment are 12.5 and 8.7 respectively.

Food related companies play a crucial role in facilitating sustainable development. Companies’ policy on labor have significant impact on those either directly or indirectly employed workers’ livelihoods and labor rights. Their procurement policy and the price they pay for supplier affect those the livelihoods of farmers who provided the raw materials. Finally, food related companies and their suppliers purchase raw materials around the world and their actions will pose significant impact over the local environment…